Fox of Konoha
by CrazyLikeArt
Summary: The Kyuubi attack never happened, the hero of the village never died, and a child sits in the forest alone, waiting to show the world his power. *warning- follows major canon events*
1. Found

Yay, my first fic. Hope you'll like it, and I apologize for whatever obscenities there may be (I'm talking about grammar errors and the likes).

Keep in mind this story is AU, and I'll ignore or modify things I feel like to, this is _my_ story after all. 'Cause of this you'll find BIG changes (I'm not going to make a femNaru or things like that though). Let me know what you think.

Ah right, I don't own Naruto. (if I did I would not spend ten numbers on the Uchiha drama queen)

* Pairing will be NaruAnko *

* * *

**CHAPTER 1- FOUND**

It was a bright sunny day, without a cloud in the sky and with a small breeze. Well, it had been such a day until about an hour ago, when it started to rain, and the small breeze became more like an hurricane. So, now, two travellers found themselves on the road, in the middle of nowhere, under the rain.

They had left the last town in the morning, after their creditors began to be more and more insistent about being paid. To be honest the fault was just of one of them, the younger dark haired girl didn't do anything. Rather, it had been her blond master who kept on gambling and losing everything they had and then more.

Luckily they spotted an inn not too far down the road where the two of them could hopefully found a shelter. Hurrying towards it, they finally entered the building fleeing from the fury of the elements outside.

"Welcome to our inn, would you like to have a room? It could be quite a while before it stops to rain." A young woman greeted them with a smile.

"Yes, thank you. Shizune, can you bring our things there? I need to drink something."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

While the dark haired girl, Shizune, went upstairs, the now named Tsunade went to take a drink and talk with the woman who welcomed them.

"So, does it rains often around here?" she asked.

"Not really, only in this season. Usually the rest of the year the weather is as good as Fire country's" the woman answered while offering Tsunade a saucer filled with sake. She was about to drink it when she heard a yell from up the stairs "No, Ton-Ton!"

The blond woman turned in time to see a little jacket-wearing pig run out of the door and into the storm, followed by Shizune. Cursing everything that came to her mind, she ran after them.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Half an hour later they were still out in the woods, soaked from head to toe.

"DAMN THAT FUCKING PIG!" Tsunade yelled in frustration, showing her infamous short temper "When I put my hands on her, I'm making her into _sausages_!"

"Tsunade-sama, here, come!" Shizune called her mentor from some feet away.

"What? Have you found that little ingrate?"

The blond medic-nin reached her apprentice and saw that she was pointing at something. Looking in that direction she finally spotted Ton-ton, but she wasn't alone. In fact she was currently laying in a small boy's lap.

The child was sitting under a tree petting the pig quietly. He was also soaking wet, like he had been there from when it started to rain. His hair were a really dark golden color, almost orange, kept down by the water, hiding his eyes. He was so small that Tsunade estimated him to be around two years old, defiantly not an age at which he should be on his own in the forest, let alone during a storm.

The blond sannin slowly approached him and knelt down in front of him. He didn't make any sign to have noticed and continued to pet Ton-Ton quietly.

"Hello little one, my name's Tsunade and the dark haired girl over there is Shizune. We were looking for this little pig, Ton-Ton. And you? What's your name? What are you doing out here?" She tried to speak quietly as to not scare him, but at the same time loud enough to be heard over the noise of the falling rain.

The child raised his head and looked at her in the eyes. Tsunade's skills as a ninja were the only things that stopped her from falling back yelping in surprise. His eyes... They had black slitted pupils, slitted like her one-time teammate Orochimaru, and the iris was the most intense red she had ever seen, redder than even the Sharingan. All in all they were creepy, they seemed the eyes of a demon, but that idea clashed with the innocent and curious expression their owner had.

Tsunade had been staring at him for a while when a thunder reminded her they were in the woods during a storm. Shaking her head she saw Ton-Ton going to Shizune who took her in her arms and, acting on impulse, she picked up the child .

"Come on, we can't stand out here all day."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Going back to the inn didn't take much, but by the time they arrived it was already late and everyone had gone to rest. The two women, one pig and a child went to their room.

Tsunade made her way straight to the bathroom and began to fill the bathtub with hot water before finally putting down the child she was carrying. Speaking of which, he was looking around curiously, but in a more controlled and quiet way than what one would expect from a two years old.

"Hey, kid," Tsunade called, "Come here, you can't stay with your clothes wet like that, otherwise you'll catch a cold. What you need now is a nice hot bath. Trust me, I'm a medic, you know."

The little boy just stared at her. And stared. Without moving.

Sighing Tsunade knelt down in font of him. "Raise your arms."

He did that and the blond sannin was able to take off his grey shirt, then she helped him removing his sandals and shorts. When they finished, Tsunade turned off the water and checked the temperature. Satisfied, she lifted the child and put him in the bathtub.

"See, it wasn't that hard, was it?" He shook his head and Tsunade smiled at him. "Good. Shizune, can you put his clothes somewhere they can dry?"

"Sure thing Tsunade-sama."

While the dark haired girl was gathering the clothes on the floor, the little child managed to lay his hands on a sponge that had fallen in the bathtub and raised it over his head. He was studying it curiously when he tried to squeeze it, making some water fall on his head. He dropped it at once, sputtering and shaking his head with a confused and scared expression.

Shizune ran in the other room with the clothes, trying to not burst out laughing with little success. Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle, even when he looked at her pouting.

"You had never seen a sponge before, had you?" She asked taking it with some soap "Now I'm going to show how it's used, ok?"

While Tsunade was washing him, she noticed that he didn't seem to have anything wrong, like scars or signs of being undernourished. He did have, however, what seemed to be three birth-marks on each cheek that looked like whiskers. When she finished, she let him have the sponge back and took the shampoo to wash his hair. They were really soft, even for a child, and she made a mental note that he seemed to utterly enjoy himself when she stoked them.

In the end the slug sannin wrapped him up in a towel and carried him in the other room where she made him sit down on a bed. Unfortunately this wasn't such a good idea, in fact he began to jump to test exactly how soft it was.

Shizune, seeing her sensei's left eye start to twitch, grabbed the little boy from his waist and made him sit down in her lap. That's when he looked her straight in the eyes for the first time. The dark haired girl was taken aback for a second by his eyes but her mentor's voice shook her out of her thoughts.

"Alright kid, listen, for tonight it's better if you stay here but tomorrow we'll bring you back to your home. Now, can you tell us exactly where it is?"

The child didn't answer and just stared at her for a while, tilting his head to the side. Then, slowly he shook his head.

Shizune frowned and tried a different way "Maybe you can tell us your family name, there could be someone who know your parents..."

He turned his attention to the dark haired girl and shook his head.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, how could he be so sure that no one knows his parents? Normally children his age thinks everyone knows their parents, like they're the greatest people to ever live. Unless...

"Do you mean you don't live with your parents? Well there must be someone who takes care of you..."

He shook his head again.

Tsunade began to feel uncomfortable and tired, so she voiced the worst possibility she could think of, with her luck it might actually be not really far from the truth "So what? Have you always lived alone in the forest?"

A nod.

In the silence that followed the two women shared the same thought at the revelation 'Oh, crap'.

The blond medic began to make handseals and in less than a second was running a diagnostic jutsu on the little boy, God knows how many problems could that kind of life have caused him. To her amazement however, she couldn't find anything out of place. Except from the sponge in his hands.

Tsunade was stunned, she knew she had left that in the bathroom "How... When did you take that?" It was ridiculous, she was a ninja, a damned sannin at that, and she hadn't seen him grab it.

He simply grinned at her with his eyes closed and scratching the back of his head with one hand, while the other clutched _his_ sponge tightly to his chest.

Shizune couldn't help but smile down at the child on her lap "It seems you're one little tricky guy, aren't you?"

He nodded vigorously before letting out a little yawn and rub his eyes in the cutest way either woman had ever seen.

"Enough talk for now." Stated Tsunade "It's time to go to bed, we'll try to solve this mess tomorrow."

Without waiting for a replay, the blond woman picked the red-eyed boy and put him in the bed with her. She pulled the covers over the both of them and, just before falling asleep, she felt him nuzzle against her in search of warmth and security.

* * *

First time I write a story I hope you'll like it. Review to let me know what can be improved or if you have questions.

* I've tried to re-read it and fix what I could. If you won't like this you can always go and vote for my next project in my profile. There's a link to a nice Naruto-inspired game too. Thanks for reading. *


	2. beginning of a new life

Here I am again, sooner than I thought, but, well

Here I am again, sooner than I thought, but, well... Every time I seat in front of my computer to work on my studies I end up writing this story.

Anyway, my thanks to all of you who reviewed and my apologize to those I didn't reply.

To Darksnider05: I'm sorry, but it seems that I've made a mistake when I replied your review, the answer to your question isn't in this chapter, but in the one after this.

I hope you all will like this and I invite you to PM me for anything, the only question I won't answer is the one about my gender. Why? Well, like I said to my sensei, it's just too funny mess with simple minds. ;p (Though it's pretty obvious)

**CHAPTER 2 – BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE**

It was the morning after Tsunade and Shizune's arrival in whirlpool and the rain still hadn't stopped. The two women were currently talking about the sleeping child curled up on Tsunade's lap.

"Yes, I've already told you, I'm sure. I don't know how it is possible, but he's the healthiest child his age I've ever seen. It's nothing short of a miracle," The legendary medic said irritably. "As for his eyes I'm not sure, but even if it is a doujutsu it hasn't awoken yet."

There was a pause before Shizune decided to ask her mentor hesitantly "What do we do now? We can't leave him here like nothing happened, Besides he's such a sweet little child..."

She trailed off looking at the blond sannin who stared back at her for a minute, then with a sigh she looked down at the young boy "Fine. We'll take him with us, _for now_."

She said the last two words glaring at a grinning Shizune, who left to get back the now dried clothes the child was wearing when they found him. It didn't matter what she said, she had seen the look in her sensei's eyes, it was clear she already cared for the little boy.

Tsunade grumbled something about 'stupid students with an all-knowing attitude'. Her rant however was cut short when she felt the child in her lap stir and let out a yawn. She watched him looking around a little disoriented before he looked up at her and grinned. She smiled back and ruffled his hair, which caused him to push his head against her hand.

"I think it's time for breakfast, what do you say? Are you hungry?"

The child nodded and made to go, when Tsunade restrained him. He looked back at her tilting his head to the side, in what she started to identify as a habit of his, while she herself raised an eyebrow at him.

"You didn't think to go to have breakfast naked, did you?"

He stared at her with a confused expression, like he wasn't able to understand the problem. Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose 'What have I got myself into'.

Luckily Shizune choose that moment to come back with his clothes. Then again, watching her help the little boy get dressed, Tsunade found herself wondering just how the hell he was wearing them in the first place, since it was clear he had no idea how to put them on.

Some minutes later the three of them sat down at a table for the most important meal of the day. While Shizune took a slice of bread and began to spread something on it, Tsunade was trying to keep busy their little fellow.

It's not like he was loud, on the contrary he was awfully quiet, but he definitely had a gift to grab things; she still had to come to terms with the fact that even now he somehow had that sponge in his hands. Really, what's the point in training ninja for years, when the first child you come across is able to steal anything from just under your nose?

Sighing Tsunade rummaged in her bag until she found something that could help her. It was a book her old teammate Jiraiya gave her not too long ago, the only not-perverted one he had wrote so far; though, if he had said that _before _he actually gave her it, he would have avoided a rather painful beating.

She remembered he was boasting about that Minato kid having become the fourth Hokage and how he liked this book. It felt kind of strange thinking about Jiraiya's student as the new Hokage who took their sensei's title, even if he was seen like a living legend.

She shook her head to clear her mind. And almost had a mental breakdown when she realized that, while she was day dreaming, a certain child managed to _take the book from her hands without her noticing._

'Yeah, years of ninja training are just a waste of time. That or he must have a freaking bloodline.'

She snatched the book from him. "Now, if you're a good boy I'll read you a story, ok?"

Shizune gave him a slice of bread that he ate while listening to Tsunade. And, since it was raining and they had nothing else to do, she continued to read all morning, until they finished the book.

"Well, I'll be damned," the sannin said closing the book "It seems that stupid pervert of Jiraiya can actually write a good story when he wants to. What do you think kid, did you like it?"

He nodded smiling at her.

"You know, we'll have to give you a name, I can't just keep on calling you 'kid'."

Shizune looked at her "Do you have something in mind?"

"Mh-mh. Naruto, like the main character of the story. Besides it means maelstrom and I think it's fitting in a way."

"It's also an ingredient of ramen. Isn't it a little too... _original_?"

Tsunade glared at her dark haired student "There's nothing wrong with it. The only other option is..." she pointed at his sponge "...Spongebob"

Shizune sweatdropped "Naruto then. What about a clan name? I know he doesn't have one but-"

"I have already thought about that, but we'll have to wait for Jiraiya to show his face again. No way in hell I'm going back in that fucking village to sign the required papers."

Shizune frowned "Tsunade-sama, I don't think you should use that language when there's a small child around. And what papers are you talking about?"

The blond woman huffed "You're really too tense Shizune, you should relax some more. There's a young man at the bar that had been staring at you for a couple of hours now, he's not bad looking. I suggest you to get laid, it can do wonders for-"

"TSUNADE-SAMA!"

Shizune stood up abruptly with a really red face. She was embarrassed, murderous, and she simply couldn't believe her sensei had just said that, let alone in front of a two years old child.

"That's what I was referring to, way too tense..."

"Can we _please_ speak about something else? And where is Naruto-chan?"

At her question Tsunade poked the form of the little boy who was hiding in her jacket "I think you scared him."

It took another three days before the rain stopped and the two medics, one pig, and one child could finally leave the inn. Their stay was rather uneventful after Shizune made clear she wasn't interested in 'bed activities', and made a not-so-subtle threat of castration to the braver men who approached her with that intention.

Unfortunately, while she was dealing with that issue, Tsunade was free to introduce Naruto with the game of poker. The little bastard learned unbelievably fast and seemed that he had an even more unbelievable luck. Tsunade thought that he was somehow stealing her fair share of good luck. On the other hand Shizune, although distraught at him learning to gamble, seemed to find it very funny.

Anyway, after a little trip, they had arrived at a big village and were currently looking for a shop to buy some new clothes for Naruto. He was carried in Tsunade's arms and had slept with his head on her shoulder all the time since they left the inn.

After wandering a little, they spotted what seemed to be a good one and went in. Once inside they were greeted by a clerk who started to rant about every single thing he had. Tsunade however ignored him and put Naruto down on his feet waking him.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around curiously, but before he could go to explore, the blond sannin decided to try and explain him what they were there for.

"Naru-chan listen, you and Shizune are going to pick up your new clothes. Choose what you like and don't steal anything, ok? If you're a good boy I'll give you a gift."

The red-eyed child nodded and let Shizune take his hand to guide him through the shelves, while Tsunade turned to face the clerk who had never stopped talking. The fact he was giving her his back while speaking about what would be fitting for 'such beautiful women' did very little to put the sannin in a good mood.

"Hey boy, stop your useless babbling for a second. Do you have goggles?"

"Of course, the best you'll ever see. Here they are. Let me show you, these are-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Tsunade looked at them while trying her best to not punch that babbling moron through the wall.

She had noticed that people who had made eye-contact with Naruto backed away in fear and surprise, and, as stupid as it was, she knew that many other would be scared of him because of his red slitted eyes. Which brought her to look for goggles.

Suddenly she saw what she needed. They were similar to the ones that Uchiha brat, Obito, one of Minato's students, used to wear, but black, so that the eyes were hidden from view.

She picked them up wondering about the young blond Hokage. She remembered him as a talented and bright kid, if a bit idealistic. Didn't he realize that taking that title was like going around wearing a bull's eye? Then again, that began when he developed the Hiraishin.

'And I too had been marked when I became a sannin,' She thought with a frown. 'I'll have to make sure Naru-chan can defend himself, just in case someone who doesn't know better thinks to make a name for himself challenging me.'

She was brought out of her thoughts when someone pulled her jacket. Looking down, Tsunade saw Naruto wearing a pair of black shorts and a bright red t-shirt. She grinned at him.

"You look good Naru-chan. But have you been good as well?"

The child looked toward Shizune tilting his head to the side and, when she nodded with a smile, he turned to Tsunade expectantly. She chuckled lightly and handled him his new goggles.

He didn't waste time and put them on, before looking around to test how he saw things with them on. He then pulled them some distance away, to see how elastic was the band that held them in place. However, before either woman could warn him, he let go of them and they went back hitting him with enough force to make him fall on his butt.

Shizune stifled a laugh, while Tsunade chuckled shaking her head. The blond then knelt down and helped him on his feet.

"Are you hurt?"

Naruto didn't answer and just pouted, half angry that they found it funny, and half embarrassed. Tsunade took off his goggles and kissed his eyes before putting them back in place.

"Better?" She asked ruffling his hair.

He nodded shuffling his feet and looking to the side while biting his lower lip. The blond sannin raised an eyebrow at his strange behavior.

"What's the matter? Do you want a hug?"

She couldn't help but smile when he nodded again, and pulled him in a bone-crushing one.

Later that night Tsunade instructed Shizune to spread word that she needed to meet her old teammate Jiraiya. The dark haired girl asked her if it was for the papers she spoke about, but the only answer she got was a comment about how a lovely couple she would make with another chatter like that babbling clerk. It was obvious that she'll have to wait to have an answer.

A/N:

Here you have the second chapter. I don't really think I'll manage to write the third before my exams, but who knew that writing could be as addictive as reading? Review or PM for any question, to show your support, or just if you haven't anything better to do.


	3. Family?

I'm freeeeeee

I'm freeeeeee. Yup, my exam is over, now it's time to relax, and what better than writing my fanfic? (aside from sleeping, going to swim, etc)

I'm really happy that you people like this, and now it's time to give you the **one million dollars question**: do you want the same old teams, or would you rather have new ones?

There are pros and cons for either option so I'll follow your suggestions. Be warned though, I'll stick with the ones who can give me better reasons or suggestions even if their choice is the less 'voted'.

I also have **two important things **to say before going on with the story:

Thanks to **Ethan Darkcrow** for letting me use the seal you'll find in this chapter. There are little differences but it's greatly inspired by his.

Also you'll find a mention of a cottage.I must admit it's kinda the same of the one created by **Baal of Yarns** in her fic 'Senju Naruto'.

**CHAPTER 3 - FAMILY?**

"So, what can you say me about him?"

"Mmmhh, not much. He seems to have joined a group, you know, one in which they all wear the same thing. You can't mistake, just look for someone with a long black cloak with red clouds and a ring."

The first man who spoke, a tall guy with long white hair, nodded before asking "Do you know the name of this group?"

"No, just that they're not someone to mess with."

"It doesn't matter, thanks."

The white haired man stood up leaving some money on the table of the bar for both the drinks and the information. The place was a dark one, not somewhere people would spend their money or time if they could avoid it; but also where, buying a drink for someone, you can have loads of info.

The tall man knew this quite well, and in the last years had made sure to make as many friends as he could out of the people who frequented those places. The result was that now he had one of the best spy network of all the elemental countries.

He turned and was about to leave when the other man remembered something "You know, I've also heard something about your other teammate, and it isn't about her gambling."

This was new. As far as he remembered she hadn't done anything else since she decided to leave the village. He just hoped it wasn't something dangerous for the Leaf.

"What did you heard?"

"Well, it seems you're not just a loud mouth with women after all. Rumor is that she wants to see you."

He blinked. This wasn't new, this was surreal. "Where?"

Tsunade eyed her cards carefully. Two sevens, a nine, a queen, and a king. She kept the sevens and changed the other three. Another seven, a eight and a ten. She glanced at the other player 'What do you have this time?' she wondered.

She showed her cards with a smirk "So, what do you say gaki?"

Naruto was looking at her cards while trying not to drop his, which wasn't an easy task given how big they were compared to his hands. Finally he shuddered and showed his cards. An ace, a second ace, a third ace, a king, and another ace.

"WHAT THE HELL? How did you manage to do THAT?"

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune said sternly coming from the kitchen "It's bad enough that you taught him to play poker, at least don't swear in front of him!"

"But look, LOOK AT HIS CARDS! He _must_ have a bloodline to do that! And it's the _third time in five hands_!"

"Well, he's just very lucky. And I think he's very tired too right now, aren't you Naru-chan?"

He answered yawning loudly and rubbing his eyes. After all he was just a two years old child, and he needed some sleep in the afternoon. It was amazing how he was so curious and sneaking at times and extremely lazy on others.

Shizune picked him up and brought him in his bed. He rolled over and reached for his sponge that was on his bedside table. The only other thing on it were the dark goggles Tsunade gave him almost a month ago. Naruto always wore them unless he was sure that there were just the three of them around.

Shizune went back in the living room of the house they were currently living in. Tsunade had said that, if they were waiting for Jiraiya to show up, they should rent a place to stay because it could be a while before he came.

"He's sleeping. Tsunade-sama, when do you think Jiraiya-sama will show up?"

The blond sannin gave her a calculating look "Anytime now. It's been a month and he should know I'm waiting by now, and I'm confident he remembers I don't like waiting, especially him. Why do you ask, is something troubling you?"

The dark haired girl shook her head "No, on the contrary, I'm kind of happy we're staying in the same place for more than a week. Maybe it can help him..."

Tsunade sighed "Still worried that he hasn't spoken yet, mh? Don't worry, it's probably because he didn't have anyone to teach him, just give him some time."

Shizune opened her mouth to say something, but a knock at the door stopped her. Tsunade turned towards the door and yelled, "Who's there ?"

"Tsunade, it's me, Jiraiya, I've heard you really missed me and wanted to see me, can I come in?"

Somehow the two women could feel his perverted grin. Tsunade's eye was twitching and as soon as she opened the door she punched Jiraiya in the face.

"Aww, what was that for?"

"Don't try that, you know very well what was for, and if you as much as try to make it sound like that..."

"Ok, no need to beat me. Jeez, and I even put a stop to my researches to come here."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything, instead she motioned him to go inside and take a seat at the table.

"Ah, Shizune, long time no see," the toad sannin greeted her.

"Jiraiya-sama." She answered bowing her head.

They all seated around the table while Tsunade took out some sake and poured some for Jiraiya and herself. Shizune looked at them disappointed, "Isn't it a little too early to begin drinking?"

"Come on, it's just two old teammates celebrating their reunion. Really Tsunade, your apprentice is too tense for her own good, she needs some free time to relieve all that stress."

At that the blond sannin chocked on her sake and started to laugh, while her apprentice stood with a red face and went out slamming the door.

Jiraiya looked at the door before turning to his old teammate "What did I say?"

"Nothing, never mind." She answered chuckling.

It really was funny seeing Shizune so embarrassed, normally she was the serious and composed one and there was a strange sense of satisfaction in making her flustered like that.

Naruto had just fallen asleep when he heard a shout from the other room. It seemed that someone had come to see his...?

He really didn't know what the two kind ladies were for him, he just liked how they both took care of him, especially Tsunade. She often played with him, caressed his hair, gave him tender looks and she even sang him a lullaby once. It gave him a strange felling, like warmth and peace, and he found himself longing for it.

Suddenly he was brought out of his thoughts by someone slamming the door quite loudly. Deciding to know what was going on, he put on his goggles and left his sponge in their place. He loved it, you can squeeze it all day and it will always come back the same.

He silently made his way to the door and slipped in the other room. He saw a white haired man talking and drinking with Tsunade, apparently it was Shizune who had left earlier.

He was studying the unknown man when Tsunade noticed him and called him with a smile, "Naruto, what's up? Did we wake you?"

Jiraiya turned to look who she was talking to and nearly fell from his seat. He continued to stare wide eyed at the child while he went to seat on Tsunade's lap nodding in response at her question.

"Naru-chan this man with his mouth opened and the stupid expression is my old friend Jiraiya, we were in the same ninja team as kids. Pervert, this is Naruto, and I would close my mouth if I were you, you're going to eat a fly if you stay like that any longer."

Said pervert didn't seem to have heard a word however, and looked at the blond medic with the most stunned face she had ever seen, "B-b-bu-but how, when, who..."

He tried to calm down taking a deep breath before speaking again, "I didn't know you had a child. How did it happened? When? Who's the father? Wait! Did you call him Naruto? Like the hero in my book? Does it mean I'm his godfather?"

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear you asking about my supposed making-a-baby thing. We found him about a month ago in the woods, he doesn't have family so we decided to bring him with us. However, yes, I named him after your book, so you can be his godfather if you want."

Jiraiya grinned happily "Do you plan to train him as a ninja? I can help with that, after all I was the sensei of the current hokage"

"Exactly when do you plan to stop repeating that every two minutes? Anyway, let's get down to business. I want you to bring me some documents from Konoha."

Jiraiya stood up at attention at that. He knew why she didn't want to go there herself, but he couldn't imagine what documents she was talking about.

"I want you to bring me an adoption form."

The toad sannin stared at her with wide eyes. It took five whole minutes for the shock to subside and when it did he sighed. He knew she'll probably kill him for what he's going to say but he had to.

"I don't think it's a good idea"

"What do you-"

"Listen Tsunade, I'm not saying not to adopt him, on the contrary, and I'm really happy for you, but you'll put him in danger. Before coming here I was gathering info about Orochimaru, he joined an organization of some sort-"

"What does it have to do with this?"

"I'm getting there. Let's say that one member gets hurt and they need the best medic to cure him. Our dear ex-teammate, who I must admit has still some spies even in our village, can simply come for you and use him as an hostage. And this can be applied to any other hidden village as well, you know that adopting him, effectively making him the sole heir of one of the most famous ninja clan, won't be a silent affair. This wouldn't be a problem if he were inside the village, where he would be safe, but if you're travelling through the elemental countries..."

"I know, but I can't come back Jiraiya, I just can't." Tsunade said with a sigh averting her eyes.

"But it would be the best thing for him. Do you really want him to grow up like a wanderer without a chance to have a home or friends? He's too young for that kind of life, if you want to adopt him you should start looking out for his future and let go of the past."

Tsunade bit her lip still not looking at him. She knew he was right but...

"You can always wait some years before coming back and adopt him officially, or maybe you can take residence in your grandfather's cottage, it's in the forest so you would be in the village without really seeing it"

Now that was a good idea. Who knew that her perverted teammate could think when he wanted to?

"You know, I think I'll do it. Just not now, give me some time and-"

She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes catching something she didn't want to see, something that made her release her killing intent.

Halfway through their conversation Naruto decided it was boring and didn't want to listen. Instead he slid down from Tsunade's lap and stealthily walked behind this Jiraiya person. He had a large scroll he put down when he came into their house and Naruto also saw a number of papers with some notes and drawings. He took them without alerting him and began looking through them.

He didn't read the notes, he couldn't, but the images he had no problem identifying them, they were naked women. His curiosity however was stopped a couple of minutes after by a rising killing intent from Tsunade.

"JI-RAI-YA! KEEP THAT TRASH AWAY FROM A CHILD'S REACH!"

"Hey, it's not my fault! And how the hell did _you _manage to sneak up on me, kid?"

"Don't swear in front of him, idiot!" Tsunade reprimanded slapping him upside the head.

Naruto tilted his head staring at the man through his goggles while he took back his papers from his grasp. In the haste however Jiraiya dropped other papers, this time the ones he used for seals and a couple of those used to check chakra affinities.

Naruto reached to pick up one of those but, as soon as he touched it, it burst into flames.

"YOU MORON! WHAT DAMNED THINGS ARE YOU CARRYING AROUND A FUCKING CHILD?"

Jiraiya sweatdropped 'So much for not swearing…'

However his thoughts focused on little Naruto, now safely hold in Tsunade's arms, and the ashes that were a paper for chakra affinities.

"Tsunade, you haven't taught him to channel his chakra yet, have you?"

"Of course not, it's not at the top of my list of things I want him to learn eventually."

"Then he must have a bloodline, there's no other explanation for him manifesting an affinity so strong so early. I mean to have that kind of reaction without even channeling chakra… It's unheard of."

Tsunade looked at him oddly before sighing

"We had a suspicion. Naru-chan, why don't you show your eyes to your godfather, don't worry he won't freak out like that lady we met last week."

He seemed to hesitate a second, but eventually he took off his dark goggles, leaving them hanging around his neck, and looked the toad sannin straight in eyes. Being somewhat warned by Tsunade's words he didn't show any kind of surprise at his slitted red eyes and just smiled at him.

"What about checking your chakra more closely, gaki?"

Without waiting for an answer he get down to work. A couple of minutes later Jiraiya went through five handseals and the black inky markings he drew before glowed brightly under his palm. The symbols all squirmed and suddenly formed a new shape under his hands.

In the end all that was left was a small circle around which there were kanji that symbolized the five elements Lightning, Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire.

"Now kid, this seal essentially works the same way of the paper you touched before. The main difference is that, while that burned too violently for us to see if you have a second affinity, this seal will tell us exactly how your chakra is with regard to every element. Now come here and give me your hand, I'll make you pour some chakra into this."

Jiraiya then took his hand and forced the child to release some of his chakra hitting some pressure points on his arms, a trick Tsunade used on him when they were genin. Well, it is more like she used him as a practice dummy until she got that right, but the point is that after a couple of months spent with a numb arm he learned the trick too.

The result was something neither of the two sannin thought was possible.

Yeah, I'm evil stopping now but, hey, this is longer than either of the previous two chapters.

Review, tell me what you think and if there are things not clear, also remember to give your suggestions for the teams. Maybe I'll contact you to choose some things, for example I let one of the few who PMed me (Akitesyu) choose a pairing for later in the story. Don't ask, it would ruin the surprise.

Also I don't know how many of you have guessed what's going on with Naruto, there's only one that I know of who guessed the truth while others seemed to fumble in the dark.

And before you ask, yes, I've already decided the result of his affinity test. And no, sorry, you'll have to wait. :p


	4. Gifted child

**ATTENTION:** This chapter has nothing new the only change is that my new beta **Strawberry Seraph** has fixed grammar and spelling. I'm happy toinform you I've already sent her the next chapter, you won'thave to wait too long.

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Here I am, I want to thank all those who reviewed, I love you all!

And I swear I didn't realize it was a cliffhanger, but well, I'll try to make amends updating more and more.

Also to **nobodyinparticular** (I mean the one who signed his/her review like this) I'm sorry if I made some mistakes, last chapter hadn't been re-read all that much, while for errors in the first two I'm afraid the fault is of my limited knowledge of English.

In his/her review he/she also said that he/she can't help with the teams because of lack of info. I'm going to assume that's the reason only one person (thanks Akitesyu) gave me an hand with that matter. :(

Well, for those who want to help with that they'll find some info on Naruto's future personality at the end of the chapter. Don't make me write 'free beer' to catch your attention on this. I can also resort to put ANs in the middle of a chapter (that would just kill poor little innocent chappy, I don't want to commite a chappycide)

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CHAPTER 4 - GIFTED CHILD

Jirayia and Tsunade were staring in disbelief.

From Naruto's little hand, which was pressed in the centre of the circular seal, five black lines extended towards the kanji for their respective elements.

What had stunned the two sannin however was the meaning of those lines: the four that went towards Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water stopped just below their kanji, indicating an affinity for those elements, while the one towards Fire went way over its kanji, which started to glow red.

"Jirayia, are you sure you haven't messed up?"

"No... I'll be damned, I thought that only a Rin'negan wielder could have an affinity for all the elements."

"What about the Fire? I've never even heard of something like that happening." Tsunade asked worriedly.

"Neither I did. It must be the strongest affinity ever that has ever existed, if we can call it such. It's probably more like he has control over that element on a level that shouldn't be humanly possible."

"What do you mean with 'control over that element'?"

The toad sannin assumed a thoughtful expression and took a minute before answering

"Well, it's just a theory but if I'm right... Ah! Here's a simple test"

Jirayia stood up and went to rummage through his backpack, closely followed by Tsunade who was carrying Naruto. Finally he found a match and lit it.

Tsunade was starting to think he lost it, what did he need a match for? She was going to voice her thoughts when he took Naruto's hand and put it over the fire.

What happened next explained fairly well what Jirayia meant. Instead of burning the child, the fire caressed his skin flowing around it like water or wind without harming him.

The two legenday nin were pulled out of their stupor from Shizune who re-entered from the door that moment.

"Tsunade-sama, I'm back, I... Naru-chan, what are you doing up? What's going on?"

The blond medic turned towards her and put the red eyed child in her arms.

"Shizune, put him in bed, I must have a word with my soon to be deceased teammate."

Jirayia was thinking about the implications of the boy's power and failed to notice his impeding doom, "Hmm? What do you meaaaaaw!"

He yelled in pain when Tsunade dragged him outside by his ear.

"Wait a second hime, what have I done now?"

"What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? YOU SAY YOU HAVE A FUCKING_ THEORY _AND YOU PUT A DAMNED LIGHTED MATCH UNDER MY SON'S HAND? WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU WERE WRONG, YOU USELESS LITTLE WASTE OF SPACE?"

Unluckily for the white haired sannin, Tsunade wasn't just screaming, she was beating him. And Tsunade wasn't known across the elemental countries only for her gambling, her skills as a medic or her bad temper. She was also known for her freaking inhuman strength.

* * *

"Ouch! Careful!"

"I know, no need to worry Jirayia-sama."

Shizune answered while treating his wounds. The toad sannin had multiple fractures, numerous bruises, and a broken nose that had more or less saved his life. As soon as Tsunade's punch had connected with his face, in fact, the blood coming from it had stopped her from killing him in her righteous-motherly-fury-induced state.

However, before that, she had had all the time to cause enough damage to leave her old teammate bedridden for the next couple of days to a week according to Shizune's diagnosis.

So he was now laying in Naruto's bed while said child, who for the time being would sleep with his unofficial adoptive and very violent and protective mother, was pokeing him. The worst part was that he was absolutely tactless, but Jirayia thought better of asking him to stop when a certain blond haired monster, hidden under the guise of a beautiful woman's appearance, was watching them from the threshold.

Even if it was true that his new godson looked adorable with that curious expression and his head tilted to the side, under his gaze Jirayia began to feel like some rat lab. On the other hand, if he could bring this little chibi with him at the hotspring the women would probably throw themselves at him.

"Jirayia, stop looking at him like that, you seem Orochimaru."

"Wha-? It's not that! I was just thinking of bringing him with me at the onsen and... Oh crap, no wait-"

"You do have a death wish, don't you little pervert?" Tsunade asked with a sweet smile that promised pain like he never had.

Luckily Shizune decided to distract her master from killing someone she had just fixed.

"Sooo, you want to adopt our little thief Tsunade-sama. Those were the papers you wanted, mh."

Meanwhile the little thief was grabbed by the dark haired girl who proceeded to take back pills, bandages, a couple of bottles, a needle, some of Jirayia's papers and the hermit's right sandal. All things that had mysteriously found their way into his pockets.

"Well, why not? He needs a family and we're already taking care of him. It wouldn't be so much different from how things are now." Tsunade answered without looking at her.

Neither Jirayia nor Shizune could understand why she refused to say out loud how much she loved the little guy, she probably feared that admitting it would have caused her bad luck to struck again. Jirayia added his two cents, "And when you'll bring him to the village he can become a great ninja. After all with his bloodline-"

"What are you talking about pervert? Who said I'm coming back? How can you be sure he has a bloodline?"

"YOU said you'll come back, don't you remember? Just before he stole my precious research you agreed to come back and stay in the Shodaime's cottage."

Shizune turned to look at them "Really? That's wonderful Tsunade-sama."

The legendary medic just mumbled something incomprehensible.

"And he _must_ have a bloodline limit, it isn't natural to have all the affinities and that thing with fire." Jirayia continued "Probably his eyes are like they are because of that, and his whiskers marks on his cheeks are part of that too."

"And his talent for stealing. Shizune is it me or it's the third time you've gotten back that sandal?"

Shizune stopped with said object in her hand, and indeed it was the third time she has taken that back. She glared slightly at Naruto, "You're not stealing this as soon as I put it back in its place, are you?"

The child grinned widely and nodded happily. Shizune's eye started to twitch while the other two adults snickered.

"It's like this, mh? You know, this means war." With that said Shizune began to tickle him making him roll on the floor laughing. The sound was joyful and pure like a waterfall and caused Tsunade to smile fondly, it was the first time they heard his voice.

Shizune however was relishing her success in overpowering him "Aw, who's ticklish? Come on, give Shizune-neechan what you've stolen or I'm not letting you go."

Jirayia smiled too at the warm display, another theory forming in his mind. It was a long shot, but it would explain the traits of his 'bloodline' _and_ why he was alone in the woods. However he couldn't bring himself to ruin the happy and peaceful moment, he would speak with Tsunade about it later, when Naruto was sleeping.

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Five days later Jirayia had made a full recovery and started packing to go back to his business. He knew better than saying the word 'research' with Tsunade nearby.

It was now night and he would leave the next morning at dawn. He had already said Naruto goodbye because the child had gone to bed early. This however also meant that he had to tell Tsunade about '_it'_ now.

"Tsunade, I was thinking about Naruto's bloodline limit."

"What about it?"

"Maybe it isn't a bloodline. I know that I said it must be, but there could be another reason, one that would explain his multiple chakra nature, his features (eyes and whiskers marks) and why you found him in forest alone." He paused as if afraid to say what he thought.

After a couple of minutes, when it was clear he wasn't going to say anything else on his own, Tsunade decided to push him a little, "Come on let's hear your great intuition."

Jirayia took a deep breath and looked her straight in her eyes, "He could be a jinchuuriki..."

Tsunade seemed worried by his words, but not about her precious child having one of the nine bijuu sealed in him. Her muscels tensed as she eyed her ex-teammate warily, "What if he is?"

"Please Tsunade, do you really think so little of me? I _am_ a seal master, and I can see perfectly well that he's just a child. I feel insulted, I thought you knew me better than this."

She relaxed, "Right, sorry."

"The only way to know for sure is if you would let me look at him for a seal. This way I can even fix it if it needs to be, or Minato-"

"NO. If you find a seal on him _you_ will fix it. And even if there isn't one you're _not_ going to say _anything _to _anyone_ about him. We agreed that we'll come back to the village when he's six to attend the accademy, but until then I don't want anyone to know about him. Those old fools on the council putting pressure on me or him are the last thing we need."

"I understand but I'm sure that Minato would help you. He doesn't like them too much himself after all."

"Jirayia, not. A. Word. To. Anyone. It's either like this or you'll never see nor heard of us ever again. Please, do it for me, it's all I ask."

The toad sannin realized with horror that she was begging him and her eyes were watering.

"I've already lost Nawaki and Dan, I lost my otouto and the man I loved, I can't loose my son too, I just can't."

In a rare moment of sensitivity he hugged her without any second purpose.

"Ok. If it's so important for you I won't say a word. Now let's go to see if there's a seal or not."

"Just try to not wake him."

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The next day Jirayia left. He had made sure to ask Shizune to keep an eye on her blond sensei to prevent her from going back on her word and not coming back to the village in three years' time. He would also try to track them down and visit his godson again some time before then.

After all he had trained the current hokage, and Naruto had the potential to be another great ninja. And he was a good kid too, somehow he couldn't help but grow fond of him.

He knew it wasn't going to be pleasant lying to Minato, but he promised Tsunade, even if it was pointless and stupid. But in the end he was looking forward to seeing the council's faces in three years, when they found out about Naruto and his bloodline.

Jirayia smiled, he had never been happier to be wrong than when he saw he didn't have any seals on him.

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Siegfriedzz has won a cookie for guessing the affinity thing.

My chapters are short, I know. this is probably the last chapter before they go to Konoha. If everything goes as planned in the next they'll go back and from then chapters will be longer. I hope.

I've made it so that they'll come back when he's six 'cuz I didn't want him there when the Uchihas are killed. I can't stand them, so they'll be killed. End of story. For now.

Below this sentance there's a general description of Naruto's personality in this fic, don't read if you don't want to.

VERY LITTLE SPOILER: NARUTO'S FUTURE SELF:

Naruto will be very lazy, he'll be strong but he won't bother showing it. He's also going to be very smart but he won't talk much and half of the times he'll say weird things.

The only restriction on the team assignment are that Sasuke is in Kakashi's team and Hinata in Kurenai's. If you want the classical teams or new ones it doesn't matter as long as you say me something.


	5. Back

Wow, I really didn't think to receive so many reviews, did the chappycide scare you? Or was it the free beer that did the trick? Just kidding.

**KyuNaruubi** made me notice an error in the previous chapters, when I wrote Light I meant Lightning. Sorry, I'll fix it. And the chakra that I kept spelling chackra. Thanks to Vassago-Toxicity for that.

And you'll be happy to know that I found a beta! She'll be able to make sure I don't misspell anything wrong, I'm sure, THANK YOU **STRAWBERRY SERAPH.**

I didn't know it would be so hard putting together three teams, now I understand the sandaime. In the end I've made my decision, I've tried to take into consideration all your opinions, you really helped very much, thank you all.

Also I'm going to delete the 'probably' in the summary when I say 'this story will probably be NarutoxAnko.' It's time to make some decisions and if you've seen the image in my profile you already knew that's the pairing I want. Besides I've already written and/or thought some scenes...

What are the teams? Hehehe, you'll have to wait. Now you know why haven't told you where I live. :D

In the chapter in which they'll be revealed I'll try to explain the reasons for my choice. The only thing I'll let you know is that they're not the classic ones. Sorry **NumberXIII, **you were outnumbered. By the way, Haku will be a boy (he asked it).

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CHAPTER 5 - BACK

The elemental countries were in turmoil. The rumor that travelled across them was both terrible and wonderful, depending on the point of view.

Itachi Uchiha, heir and prodigy of the Uchiha clan, feared for its doujutsu, the Sharingan, in one night had eliminated his whole clan. The only survivor, besides Itachi himself, was his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha.

The yondaime hokage, Konoha's yellow flash, was forced to go back to his village from the capital where he had met the fire daimyo. It seemed that, in less than eight hours, he had completed the three days' journey from the capital to Konoha. It was a reminder to some of the other countries that, even if they lost one of their most powerful clans, the leaf ninjas still shouldn't be underestimated.

However the fact was that that Konoha_ was _weakened. That, coupled with an insistent Jiraiya that reminded her of her promice, forced a reluctant Tsunade to pack her things to head back to her birth village.

Naruto, now a six year old boy, seemed to be really excited. Personally Tsunade didn't know what to do with him: it was good to see a change from his lazy and laid back attitude, but, on the other hand, last time he had been like this was when Jiraiya had the_ bright_ idea to give him a sweet with a high content of sugar. All to make him promise not to tell her he had brought him to the onsen. The _females'_ part of the onsen.

That day had been hell, he even managed to take Jiraiya's pants, leaving him in his boxers in the middle of the streets without him noticing until a woman slapped him screaming. None of them had been able to figure out how he did that, but they agreed that giving him sugar was taboo.

Apart from the sugar rule, Naruto had grown into a fine ninja-in-training too. It took a lot of patience and time for him to learn chakra control, and he still had the tendency to use loads of it, enough to compensate his lack of control with raw power, but Tsunade wouldn't have that. She did everything in her power and in the end she managed to teach him to control his chakra.

As for theoretical knowledge, he proved to be like the sponge he _still_ carried around. The two women knew it was ridiculous, but neither of them could bring themselves to take it away from him.

However Naruto wasn't the only one who had made progress. Tsunade herself made a huge improvement getting rid of her fear of blood.

It had happened two years previously, when a group of missing-nin attacked them. After Shizune defeated one of them, his so called comrades cut off his head, saying he was a weakling. Tsunade had frozen at the bloody display, but then one of the missing-nin just had to look at Naruto and say "Don't worry little boy, I'm sure we won't have to kill you too, someone would certainly buy you."

Strangely even then he wasn't really scared, just worried by his mother's trembling. He didn't know that it was no longer because of the blood, but out of rage. He then looked at her and said his first word, "Mom?"

Hearing it melted her heart. It was also that moment her hemophobia disappeared completely and she demonstrated exactly _why_ people didn't mess with one of the densetsu no sannin. Smart people at least.

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The group of two women, a pig and a child were nearing Konoha's main gate. "Naruto," Tsunade suddenly spoke up, "Put on your goggles."

He did as he was told, hiding his eyes from view. The slug sannin didn't want people to think he had a doujutsu or to find out of his bloodline limit. Although Konoha didn't despite them like Kiri (quite the contrary, actually), she would not take the chance of the other clans using him for their own benefit, like a tool in their damned political games.

Her train of thoughts was interrupted when they reached the gate. Two chuunin were checking people's passes and documents, but she noted that Naruto was staring at a tree nearby. And surely enough, she too spotted the anbu hidden there. It would have been foolish not to raise the security, given the weakened state of the village after the loss of the entire police force (the police was formed by the Uchiha. AN).

She wasn't really surprised that her little boy had seen him, his stealth was probably as good as an anbu's if not better, and both she and Shizune had noticed that he was always aware of his surroundings. On top of that his senses were sharper than normal. How much sharper exactly, though, they weren't entirely sure.

Tsunade ruffled Naruto's hair, something he still enjoyed every time she did, and spoke just loud enough to be heard by both the chuunin _and _the anbu, "Naru-chan, I've told you it's rude to stare. Leave that poor anbu in the tree alone."

Shizune slapped her forehead groaning. Why? Why did Naruto's prankster personality rub off her sensei?

The leaf nin however didn't have time to react when a new voice came from just behind the gate, "Tsunade, you've been here for less than a minute and you're already trying to cause problems? I would have expected that from Naruto, not you."

Shizune sighed in relief and would have hugged the toad sannin if she didn't know what that pervert would try. She really didn't want to be in trouble with the anbu.

"Jiraiya-sama," the chuunin greeted him. The anbu nodded his head but didn't move from his spot on the tree. Tsunade was a little less formal, "Shut up, moron. Are you here to accompany us to the hokage tower?"

"Of course, sensei is there as well and I wouldn't miss his face when he sees you or our little thief even for my precious research."

"I'm honored..." The sarcasm in Tsunade's replay was missed by the white haired ninja.

"You should. Coming here I've seen some very lovely ladies head for the hotspri-"

He was sent flying towards the hokage tower, courtesy of Tsunade's punch.

They proceeded to follow him walking through the village, Tsunade had to seize Naruto by the scruff of the neck to prevent him from running all around the place. She hoped it would be a quick thing, they come, say hi to the old man and Minato, sign the papers to officially adopt Naruto, and then they could go to her grandfather's cottage.

No matter what, she still not liked being here. The cottage, even if inside the village, was at least surrounded by the forest, partially isolating it.

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Meanwhile the famous yondaime hokage was in his office whining to Sarutobi, the old third hokage.

"I'm too young to sit behind a desk doing paperwork..."

"I'm sorry kid, but I was too old to do that," Sarutobi teased earning a slight glare from his successor which merely caused him to chuckle.

The blond hokage sighed in resignation, "At least we're getting over the Uchihas' loss. Although I must admit I'm worried about young Sasuke's mental health. And even Kakashi was depressed.. You know, I think this reminds him of when Obito died. Hopefully Rin will be able to help him."

"Mh-hm," Sarutobi nodded while lighting his pipe, earning a scowl from Minato. However he didn't have the time to reprimand the older leader when he sensed someone approaching his office at high speed.

A couple of seconds later his sensei came through the window, destroying it in the process.

Sarutobi watched this with wide eyes, "Now, why didn't that happened when _I_ was doing paperwork?"

The blond hokage ignored him "Sensei, what happened? Are you all right?"

"Uh-hu. Damned woman, there was no need to be so violent!"

Minato looked at him perplexed, while the old sandaime let a nostalgic smile appear on his face, "You know Jiraiya-kun, it's been ages since something like this happened. Last time it was Tsunade-chan's punch that sent you flying through a wall."

"Of course," said a new voice from the threshold, "That idiot asked me if I wanted to have 'dinner' with him at his place, adding that I could stay and spend the night."

The hokage, old and new, turned towards the door to see a young-looking blond woman there, followed by a dark haired girl who was holding a little pig.

Sarutobi stared at her in disbelief, "Tsu-Tsunade-chan? Is that you? My god, you haven't aged at all! But what are you doing here? I thought you said you would have never come back?"

"I changed my mind. Well, kind of. I'm going to stay in my grandfather's old cottage, that way I won't necessarily have to see this village all that much."

While this was going on, Minato was looking the other girl, he was sure he had seen her before. When she noticed this she smiled at him, "Min- I mean hokage-sama, it's good to see you again."

"Shizune? Wow, I haven't seen you since we were just kids, trying to find ways to get Jiraiya beaten by Tsunade. Well, it was more like me doing that, and you trying to convince me it was a bad idea..."

Their conversation was cut short by an angered blond medic, "DAMMIT YOU ALL, WHY CAN'T YOU KEEP THOSE FUCKING SMUT ORANGE BOOKS HIDDEN? AND NARUTO, PUT DOWN THAT PIPE!"

It was only than that Minato and Sarutobi noticed a child around six years old seated on the hokage's desk, with the hokage's hat, Sarutobi's pipe and an orange book whose ownership would definitely be denied by everyone.

He had short spiky orange hair and three whisker-like marks on each cheek. His eyes were hidden by dark goggles and he was wearing black ninja sandals, orange pants, and an orange sleeveless jacket with a black t-shirt underneath and white wristbands.

Aside from the fact that both the hokage were distracted, it was still unbelievable that neither of them had sensed him until now, Sarutobi in particular couldn't grasp the fact that he had his pipe, he had been sure that it must have been in his mouth when he took it.

His next two words however were an even bigger shock, "Hai, kaa-san."

Sarutobi's face while Tsunade took a seat and her son went to stay on her lap made Jiraiya's day. When he got a hold on himself he smiled brightly at them, "This was certainly unexpected, I'm really happy for you Tsunade-chan. I take it you're back to raise your son in the village?"

"First things first, sensei. I'm here to sign the proper documents to officially adopt him, then yes, he'll grow up as a Konoha ninja."

"What? More paperwork?" the yondaime asked sadly.

"Shut up and find those documents brat, didn't that idiot of Jiraiya teach you anything?"

"If you're talking about that 'do what a woman says without questions' thing, then I'm sorry, never learned that well," he answered with a grin.

"Are you kyoufu's student?" Naruto asked curiously, interrupting the two. (**kyoufu **godfather. AN. **BN.**)

"Kyoufu? Who..? Ah, _Naruto_, now I remember. You named him after sensei's book, right Tsunade-san?"

"Yes, now would you please find those papers?"

"Sure thing, here they are," the blond hokage gave her the required documents and while she signed them he decided to remind her of another thing, "You do know that, since you're adopting him into one of the major clan of the village, the council will want to meet you two sooner or later, don't you?"

"Sigh- Yes I know, I actually hoped you could help me with that. I really don't want them trying to manipulate him."

"Sure, if you want I'll keep my mouth shut. But in the end it won't change anything. They'll see you in a month, when he enters the academy. Oh well, for now you can go and settle down. I'm happy you're back in the village Tsunade-san, Shizune-chan. And it was nice to know you Naruto-kun."

Tsunade give him a glance over, "You know, it seems you're getting on all right with sensei's old job."

"Yeah, he's the best successor I could have picked." Sarutobi said, "He manages to keep everything under control, even after the Uchiha's massacre."

The young hokage groaned, "That was my most stressful week. Ever."

"Really?" Tsunade said with an evil smile, a clear sign of Naruto's prankster side rubbing off her, "Then as a medic can I suggest you, like I did to Shizune, to mmmph—!"

She was interrupted by her red faced student who covered her mouth and dragged her outside, "Hehe… It's been great to see you again Minat- I mean hokage-sama, Sarutobi-sama. Bye bye."

The men watched the strange display with confused expressions. After a minute Minato scratched the back of his neck, "I think I missed something…"

* * *

I know it wasn't longer like I said it would, but the next will be! I promise! Won't update until it's long enough. It won't take too much either, I've already started it.

Next time it will be the first day at the academy and... Well I can't say everything now.


	6. school and clans

Hello, how's life going? I recently managed to rip off a nail while trying to stop a door with my foot. It hurt like a bitch. I'm declaring war on sandals, doors, and whoever burst out laughing (which includes my bro, he hasn't stopped yet). I'll write a book "How to hurt yourself in the most stupid way possible".

Anyway, to answer **KyubbiNaruto** here is a list with the character's current ages, I've put everyone I thought of so that I won't have to add someone later. I've changed some things like **TheDon1023** noticed, hopes this will clear things.

Naruto, other rookies: 6

Tsunade, Jirayia, Orochimaru: 44

Yondaime: 30

Shizune: 25

Kakashi, Rin, Asuma, Gai, Kurenai: 20

Anko: 16

Hana: 12

Hanabi: 1

Team Gai: 7

Yugito: 8

Before the next chapter, I decided to copy here **HeHe**'s review, I found it really funny and thought you'd like to read it:

Omake.  
The men watched the strange display with confused expressions. After a minute Minato scratched the back of his neck, "I think I missed something…" Blinking as he felt a draft he look down to see he was standing in his office buck naked as young Naruto run out the door after his mother causing Minato to yelling out "WTF?". Causing Sarutobi to turn his head to look at the naked 4th hokage. "For the love of god man put some clothes on I don't need to see this!"

Ah right, my wonderful beta **Strawberry Seraph** has made a fanart for this story, you'll find a link to it in my profile.

Now on with the story.

**

* * *

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CHAPTER 6 – SCHOOL AND CLANS

The month before the start of the academy was a peaceful one. Tsunade stayed in the cottage, refusing to step foot in the village for the time being, leaving Shizune with the responsibility of buying groceries and whatever else they needed. Sometimes Naruto would go with her, or just wander through the village.

He was happy, for the first time they were in a place where he could go around alone. He liked not only the village, but their new house too. It was like being in a forest, surrounded by trees. It was awesome!

He looked at the clock and went in the kitchen. Shizune was there cooking breakfast humming quietly to herself.

"Mornin' nee-chan, wha' ya doin'?"

"Good morning Naruto-kun, I'm making breakfast. Are you nervous for your first day of school?"

"Mmmh, nope!"

She chuckled at his antics, it seemed nothing could scare him. "Well why don't you go and wake up your mother? After all she must accompany you to school."

He nodded and ran into Tsunade's bedroom, then woke up his kaa-san in the way every excited child would. He jumped on the bed screaming.

"Get up mom, we have to go to school!"

"Ok, ok, I'm up."

"Kaaaa-saaan, you're still sleeping. Come on, Shizu-nee-chan said you have to come with me to school."

Naruto whined while pulling Tsunade's clothes and sheets. To tell the truth, the blond sannin was already awake but she just loved seeing him try to drag her out of her bed. He was so cute pouting like that.

There was that, and then there was the fact that she really didn't want to see all the clan heads that were sure to be at school to accompany their children. From what Minato had told Shizune this year was full of clan heirs: Inuzuka, Akimichi, Nara, Aburame, Yamanaka, even the Hyuuga heiress and the last Uchiha. Really, what were the odds?

Finally, when it seemed that Naruto was going to lift and turn over the bed, she gave in and got up. After all if there were so many important families it wouldn't be right for the heir of the shodaime's clan to be late.

After breakfast Shizune said something about needing to go at the hokage's tower to see if she could be reinstated as a Konoha's medic nin and work at the hospital, leaving Tsunade alone with her son.

Unfortunatly, the slug sannin was still in a bad mood about meeting the clan heads, especially knowing that they'll call her to a council meeting as soon as they'll see her. 'I swear, if someone with a daughter as much as looks funny at him I'll make sure it's the last thing they do. _I hate politics.'_

They had just left their home when Tsunade had a sudden thought, "Naru-chan, you go ahead, I'll catch up later. Don't worry it's a matter of minutes, ok? Good boy." She ruffled his hair and looked at him running towards the village to go to the academy. Like Nawaki did.

She shook her head and left towards the memorial stone. It was time to think about the future, she knew it, but that didn't mean she had to forget the past.

* * *

Naruto couldn't help but smile while running through the village. There were so many people, so many ninja! He still found it incredible how they all lived together in the same village like a big family and helping each other.

And it wasn't just the weak that stuck together to defend themselves, on the contrary, the stronger ones were even more devoted. Like the blond guy, the hokage, and the old man with the pipe. It was a bit disorienting, but his mom had explained it: solidarity and love for the village.

Putting those thoughts aside he realized he had reached the academy. It was early but numerous people were already there. He saw groups of adults speaking among themselves while the other kids were playing or babbling about how strong they were.

Naruto fumbled his goggles a little to make sure they were hiding his eyes. He noticed some girls looking at him and whispering, 'Oh, hell no! Nonononono! Have to find a way to distract them, have to find someone else... there! Dark pretty emo boy who glares at everyone. And that crest must mean he's the last Uchiha. I think. Now, how to make them go after him?'

Looking around Naruto saw a brown haired kid with two red marks on his cheeks who carried a white puppy dog on his head. He was boasting about being a great Inuzuka and whatever else; it didn't matter, he was perfect.

He made his way towards his group, ignoring a pineapple haired boy who was sitting under a tree looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Naruto didn't waste time to set his plan in motion.

"So you're an Inuzuka? Doesn't seem a big deal, I've heard a chuunin say that the Uchiha would probably be the best of this year. Even if I must admit that he doesn't look like much, it's probably all talk."

"Yeah, I've heard his clan was the strongest." said a kid.

"That's bullshit, I can wipe the floor with him anytime!" added another.

Kiba Inuzuka thought about what they were telling, and frowned. No way was that dark jerk better than him, he was the alpha, the top dog. Sparing a glance at the dark Uchiha he could practically feel his arrogance and that air around him that said 'I'm better than anyone else, you're all below me'. He didn't even speak to anyone.

Gritting his teeth the young Inuzuka walked towards him, stopping in front of him. The Uchiha glared at him but didn't speak.

"What's that face? Are you scared?"

"Hn, why should I? It's not like you can do anything to me."

The cold reply of the dark boy angered Kiba even more. They were making a scene and almost every kid was looking at them. Especially the girls. Naruto smirked 'So easy to manipulate.'

"Oh, really? You think you're better than me don't you? Well, I'm Inuzuka Kiba and me and Akamaru can beat you with our hands tied."

"Do you mean that thing can fight?"

"YOU BASTARD! Take that back, no one insults Akamaru and get away with it."

"Try and make me, I'll show you why the Uchiha are the best."

"If they _were_ the best how come they're no more?"

Kiba didn't need to say anything else, in an instant Sasuke Uchiha attacked him. Their fight wasn't really all that great, even if it seemed that both of them had some vague form of taijutsu. It was just by sheer luck that none of the teachers or parents were in a position that allowed them to see and stop the fight. At least from Naruto's point of view. The best part was that whatever the outcome would be, afterwards the girls would chase either the emo boy or the wild looking boy, leaving him in peace.

"You know, that was a really clever," Naruto turned to face the pineapple haired boy who was staring at him earlier.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara. Do you play shogi?"

"Sometimes..." Naruto answered without averting his eyes from the fight. 'It's more like a brawl, I suppose that they cannot be called ninja yet'.

Both Kiba and Sasuke had some scratches on them, but in the end Sasuke came out on top, and the girls started forming his fan-club.

* * *

Tsunade reached the academy around fifteen minutes after her son. She took a deep breath before stepping in and looking around. She couldn't find Naruto but that wasn't really a cause of concern, he had always been hard to find. Which was the reason why she didn't object when he choose to wear orange.

On the other hand she recognized numerous clan heads. The Inuzuka in particular seemed upset about something and glancing at her son she assumed that he just got into a fight. Sighing she went towards them 'Might as well begin with someone tolerable. And with a _son_.'

That son was currently being scolded by an angry Tsume, "What should I do with you? You're lucky there weren't teachers that saw that! You could have been expelled before the actual start of the term!"

Even her partner, a big dog with only one eye, Kuromaru, seemed to be irritated. However his sharp senses warned him of a woman approaching them, someone powerful. He let out a soft growl to warn his companion who turned to see who she was and what she wanted.

Tsume came face to face with a beautiful young-looking blond woman who looked strangely familiar.

"Your son seems a little hurt, I can help you with that if you want?"

She said that gently, without mocking or lowering her head like those who tried to gain her favor. This gave credit to Kuromaru's claim about her being a very strong kunoichi, and convinced Tsume to nod and let her have a look at Kiba.

The Inuzuka clan head, however, didn't expect the blond to activate a medical jutsu without handseals, healing Kiba in a matter of seconds. That act made something click in her memory, and suddenly she realized just _who_ was in front of her. However she didn't have time to speak.

"Mom? What happened? Has Kiba gotten himself in trouble already?"

A young girl with brown hair tied up in a ponytail reached them, closely followed by three dogs. She had a hitai-ate, showing that she was a genin.

Tsunade wanted to punch something, it was just her luck that the Inuzuka turned out to have a daughter too. Hopefully Tsume wasn't someone who would offer her for an arranged marriage. The ones that really worried her were the Hyuugas. From what she knew Hiashi had _two_ daughters, one of which was sure to married for clan interests, if not both.

"It's nothing, your brother thought it was a good idea to start fighting with another kid," Tsume said clearly disappointed. "Anyway, I want you to meet someone. Hana, Kiba, this is Tsunade-sama one of the densetsu no sannin, Tsunade-sama these are my son and daughter."

Hana bowed with respect and pushed her brother's head to make him do the same when he just looked at her confused. Tsunade waved slightly at them before someone else greeted her.

"Tsunade-sama, it's a pleasure to see you again in the village. I suppose Jirayia-sama convinced you to come back..?" It was the Nara clan head who was speaking with his head bowed.

"Yes, something like that. You're a Nara, right? Are you taking care of your deer? Their antlers make good medicine."

"Yes madam. I suppose you remember my old teammates Inoichi Yamanaka and Chouza Akimichi?"

Said clan heads greeted her too, followed by Aburame Shibi who made his way there to see what all the noise was about. And naturally, seeing all the other clan heads, Hiashi came as well. Tsunade tried to stay calm 'Fuck, except for the elders and the hokage I've managed to attract the entire council. At least the civilians hadn't noticed yet.' With that in mind she tried to make a small talk.

"May I ask what happened to your son Kiba?"

"He started a fight with the Uchiha, I wonder what he was thinking. I don't know what I've done wrong with him, he just can't control himself," Tsume said sternly.

"Such immaturity shouldn't be tolerated, I mean no offence Inuzuka-san but it isn't proper behavior"

Tsunade rolled her eyes at the Hyuuga declaration, they have always been 'nobility, decorum, and politics.' It seemed that the village hadn't changed one bit in the yearsthat she had been gone. His comment however wasn't particularly liked by the Inuzuka.

"Well, I won't defend his actions but he's still young, he'll grow out of it. Beside it wasn't smart on the Uchiha's part to insult his companion. I'm sure Shibi agrees with me that his son would have done the same if young Sasuke were to threaten his bugs."

"The behavior of the both of them is irrational, the Uchiha for his disrespect and your son for going too far."

Tsunade suppressed the urge to kill them all or committing suicide 'I HATE POLITICs, DAMNIT, WHY AM I STUCK HERE?' She looked at the children playing not far from them searching for Naruto. He would be a perfect excuse to go away from those pompous speeches.

Luckily Inoichi decided to change the subject, evidently he too didn't like the turn things were taking.

"What do you think Shikaku, will young Shikamaru made it through the academy? Last I heard he spent his days cloud watching." asked Inoichi.

Tsunad almost chuckled at that. 'He he, Nara are as lazy as my Naru-chan. Although he's been more active lately. Must be because he's growing up.'

"I'm not too worried, he's a bright kid." Answered Shikaku, "What about your daughter, are you sure she'll be fine being a kunoichi?"

Tsunade suppressed the urge to groan, that made the list of clan heads' daughters raise to four. At least she was fairly sure they wouldn't propose an arranged marriage until the kids were older. Except for Hiashi, but the Hyuuga had always been into those kinds of things.

Although the heiress seemed to be a little different. She looked like a shy kind girl who wanted to avoid conflict. If it hadn't been for the Byakugan Tsunade wouldn't have been able to recognize her as a Hyuuga at all.

Watching their children Chouza saw someone who got him curious "Who's that boy with Shikamaru? I don't remember ever seeing him before."

Tsunade looked up and found her son. Her attention however was still focused on the talking going on in front of her.

Hiashi sneered, "If his choice of clothing is anything to go by I'd say he's from a civilian family, he'll drop out if the ninja program soon enough. I think he's even clutching to a sponge, pathetic."

"Troublesome, you shouldn't judge him from his appearance. They're still kids after all." Shikaku said, unknowingly gaining one hundred points in Tsunade's book.

"Even if those appearances will get him killed? His clothes are basically screaming 'Here I am, kill me.'"

"Whose clothes?"

Tsunade had to stifle a laugh, Naruto's timing couldn't have been better. The clan heads had jumped in surprise, none of them having sensed him approaching.

"Well it seems that his clothes didn't prevent him to sneak up to a Hyuuga, three Inuzuka, five of their dogs, and four other clan heads. He'd probably be able to sneak up on our anbu even if he wore a fluorescent yellow dress with bells."

Oh, how she loved to see their red and embarrassed faces. 'They'll never live this down.' She looked Naruto smiling at her before going to scratch one of the dogs behind the ears. It was one of Hana's and he closed his eyes in content at the boy's touch, but what was strange was that all the dogs seemed to be hesitant around him.

"Hello dad, what's going on?" Shikamaru had followed his new goggles-wearing friend and found himself with the clan heads and a blond woman he had never seen before.

"Ah Shikamaru, come here. This woman is Tsunade of the legendary three, she's a very capable kunoichi. Now, who's your new friend?"

"He's Naruto, I thought to invite him later for a game of shogi, if it's not a problem."

Naruto, hearing his name, stopped petting the dogs. He spared a glance at Hana, whom he found being much better than the girls currently chasing the Uchiha, and turned to look at Shikaku with a grin. The man shrugged, "It's ok for me, but he should ask his parents."

"I have no problem, my apprentice Shizune will come to pick him later at your house then."

The first and faster to react to her words was Naruto, who hugged her while she ruffled his hair. The others took a couple of second to understand what she meant and when they did their eyes widened in shock.

Hiashi paled a bit, thinking about what he had said earlier. He had insulted a sannin's son in front of her. When word of this reached the Hyuuga elders they'd have his head, especially if they thought to try and arrange a marriage with the last descendant of the shodaime hokage.

* * *

Soon after Naruto's meeting with the old people the teachers called for their new students.

The first day of school wasn't all that hard, they basically only explained what they would teach them and encouraged them to be friends and ask questions. Naruto put his concealing goggles to good use and slept most of the time, after all, he already knew everything they were saying, the only interest he had at the moment was in his classmates. The girls were all the same: giggling, whispering among themselves and looking at the boys, especially the Uchiha after the scene earlier.

The only one worth notice was a shy girl with white eyes. She seemed to have a doujutsu of some sort, but her confidence was lacking and she appeared weak.

The Uchiha himself was a little too arrogant for his own good. He looked like someone who'd get himself killed because he underestimated his enemy. Not that Naruto cared anyways.

Among the boys the only two he liked so far were Shikamaru, who was sitting beside him sleeping, and his friend Chouji, who offered him some chips. They'd get along just fine. He swallowed and leaned his head on the table and to go back to sleep.

When he woke up again it was because the bell that marked the end of school rang. After their classmates went out he followed Shikamaru to his house. Once there they began their play of shogi, and Naruto had to admit that his new friend was quiet skilled at strategy. However he was a master with traps and mind games.

Shikaku and his wife couldn't believe their ears when two hours later they heard Shikamaru let out a yell of frustration before conceding the game with a smile. Although demoralized that his adversary seemed to read his moves before he could even _think_ them, the young Nara was happy to have a damn good challenge, after all playing with stronger opponents was the best way to improve, or so they say.

It would be his father, however, to be the one to witness just how much trickier the last Senju could be.

* * *

Tsunade was going to the hokage tower, followed by Shizune who carried Ton-Ton while she herself carried Naruto. He simply loved to snuggle against her and human contact in general. She theorized it was an after-effect of living isolated for the first two years of his life. Not that she complained.

Once reached their destination they found Sarutobi waiting for them.

"Sensei," Tsunade greeted him, "you really can't let go of your old job, can you? And what's this about you becoming part of the elders of the council?"

He chuckled "As much as I liked to leave the hat to Minato, retirement is utterly boring. And this way I can help him dealing with the rest of the council. We even managed to put the civilian part in their place. It's my sweet revenge for them making stupid demands while I still was hokage"

His old student rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right. Let's just get over with this meeting."

"Tsunade-chan, if you don't mind may I ask why you brought him?"

"He wanted to come. I had him study a bit about village's laws and he likes mind games," While saying this both mother and son sported the same mischievous grin.

Sarutobi felt a chill ran up his spine. That became soon a sweatdrop and a twitch of his eye when Tsunade wordlessly handed him his pipe that she took from Naruto. She had given up trying to understand how the hell he kept grabbing things and instead opted to control him every now and then. It was definitely less tiring.

"Naru-chan, don't steal anything while we're in this meeting, ok?"

Upon entering the council room Sarutobi went to his seat around the table while Tsunade took a random free one with Naruto on her lap and Shizune standing behind her. Ton-Ton had mysteriously gotten into the child's arms and was now being petted by him.

When all the council members quieted down the fourth hokage spoke up, "Now that everyone is here we can start this meeting. The reason we're this evening is to welcome back you, Tsunade-hime, in our village and discuss about you taking possession of your inheritance as the descendant of the shodaime hokage, as well as offer you a position in this council as both the Senju clan head and one of the legendary sannin."

Tsunade raised an eyebow at the last point. The old fools had something in mind, usually an offer from them comes together with a request.

Koharu Utatane, an old woman that was once a teammate of the third, stood up to speak. "Tsunade-san, your grandfather's possessions included your clan's compound, the lands on east of the village with training ground number fifteen and a portion of the forest with the cottage in it. On top of that there's a bank account and you have the right to look in the forbidden scroll anytime you want."

Shizune couldn't suppress the twitch of her eye, 'And if I think of all the times we had to flee from our creditors...'

After that Homura Mitokado, an old man with round glasses, rose to speak himself, "Now that that is out of the way let's talk about your future position in this council and as clan head. We are confident that you remember your great-granduncle clan restoration law. As such your son will have to marry many wives. We wouldn't bring it up so early but..."

He trailed off looking at Hiashi who stood up. "Tsunade-sama, I'm speaking for my whole clan when I say that we would be honored to unite our fam-"

"No thanks," Tsunade interrupted him raising a hand "I'm not going to force my son in an arranged marriage, and don't think I have forgotten your comment from this morning."

Hiashi had the decency to look ashamed "I have no excuse for my disrespect, but with the clan restoration law you may not always have a choice on who he's going to marry."

Naruto suddenly spoke up, surprising the council "Didn't that law apply only to bloodline-wielding clans?"

Shikaku smirked at the boy "He raises a good point."

Danzou, the old war hawk, joined the conversation "But one could argue that the mokuton may have been a bloodline that manifests itself only every so often. In that case the law still applies here."

"No it doesn't, I'm adopted so you can't force me to marry anyone, and if you do it would be against the laws which state clearly that it would be interference with internal clan's affair, which is punished with expulsion from the council. However, if you want to push the issue, I think that one of this village's traditions is that if a man asks for the hand of one of the major clan's heiresses, he can have it if he beats her father. So all your daughters will have to do is beat my kaa-san."

Sarutobi and Minato were about to burst out laughing, Shikaku and Tsume were smirking, Shibi's eyebrows could be seen on top of his sunglasses while the other members of the council were completely dumbfounded, and a bit pale, at the thought of such a fight.

For her part, Tsunade simply grinned down at him and kissed the top of his head. She then stood up, "Well, if this is all I'd like to go back home, it's late and Naruto has school tomorrow. By your leave."

While she was leaving Minato leaned forward to whisper to Sarotobi "As soon as he's old enough I'm going to make him one of my advisors. This is the first time I've ever seen the council dealt with such mastery."

* * *

Finally a looonger chapter. I had some problems writing it but I managed to finish.

Let me know what you think.


	7. Growing up

Hello everyone, I've brought you the next chapter.

I want to thank all those who reviewed (OVER 100 reviews!), you give me a reason to write and try to make this better.

I've received a couple of complaints about Anko being 12 years older than Naruto, so I'm thinking of changing her age to 8-10 years older than him. And she's not going to be a pedophile, the fact that she's so much older will be a problem for her (and not only her) at first, then other circumstance will solve this.(no, Naruto won't age in a night)

Anyway, if you hadn't seen it yet Strawberry Seraph, my awesome and wonderful beta, has put up two pics I've made since I'm not registered on deviantart. There are two links in my profile.

**CHAPTER 7 – GROWING UP**

Life in the hidden leaf village was peaceful, shaken every now and then by pranks whose instigator had never been caught, but relatively quiet. Of course the fact that those pranks started when Tsunade and her son came back was just a coincidence.

The yondaime sighed looking out of the window in his office. He remembered being a prankster himself when he was younger, but painting the hokage tower like it was on fire in one night without being seen by the anbu spoke highly of the _mysterious_ prankster's skills. Someone even suggested leaving the tower like that as it was actually kind of cool.

The hokage didn't really care, he was just happy that no one had witnessed Naruto's more vicious side when he had made the mistake of listening to Jirayia-sensei. He blushed slightly at the memory.

FLASHBACK

Minato was in Tsunade's house. He had come to give her some documents about the last council meeting, but that had been forgotten as soon as the chair under him had disappeared, making him fall on his butt. He caught a glimpse of a hysterical laughing child before the blond medic calmly asked him if he had given Naruto something.

"Uh, yes. Jirayia-sensei said me to give him a sweet from him and-"

"And you _did_ it? Damnit, I thought you were smart! SHIZUNE! We have a child on high sugar!"

Minato looked at her while she was giving him her back and a random thought crossed his mind 'When the hell did that little kid make a braid in her hair?'

The dark haired girl joined them carrying Ton-Ton with her before the pig could fall victim to the now excited kid. She seemed worried and looked right and left "How did it happen? You made him promise not to eat it."

"This blond excuse for a hokage trusted the little pervert and gave him a sweet from him. I'm so gonna make a toad supper tonight."

Minato scratched his head, "Oh come on, how serious could it be?"

Shizune glanced at him, "Well, if I had to take a guess from what he did to Jirayia... Then you should keep a hand on your pants, otherwise you'll loose them."

"Aww, Shizu-nee-chan! You shouldn't say those kinds of things, there's a little kid here! You're a naughty pervert!" Naruto chimed in.

Minato blushed furiously and looked out of the window. Shizune seemed to have a mental breakdown, she turned a shade of red that seemed radioactive, and was opening and closing her mouth unable to speak. Tsunade... Well, she was laughing so much she had trouble breathing.

"However you probably should have listened to her," Naruto added adjusting a dark blue scarf around his neck.

'Wait a second…Minato thought, 'That…isn't a scarf. It looks like my...' With a horrified expression he looked down to see his pants were missing.

Meanwhile Shizune regained her ability to speak, "YOU LITTLE SMARTASS! COME HERE!"

He was still a bit out of it when he heard Tsunade snicker, "Minato-kun, are those frogs on your boxers?"

"They were a present," He tried to justify himself. This was quickly become the most embarrassing experience in his life.

FLASHBACK ENDS

The yondaime shook his head. That day he and Shizune had chased him until three hours later he decided that drastic measures were in order and used the Hiriashin to take a hold of him. The fact that Tsunade smirked at him every time they met since then didn't make it any better. He seriously considered making a specific law to forbid anyone to give Naruto anything with sugar in it until he was old enough to control himself.

* * *

Shizune was working at the hospital. The other medics looked at her as an authority on medicine but being Tsunade's apprentice had that kind of effect on people.

Her sensei herself refused the offer to work there saying she'd rather stay home with Naruto, but added that if they had cases which really needed her intervention then she'd come. It was left unsaid that should Naruto have even a paper-cut she'd come destroying everything in her way.

Between her new colleagues she made friend with Rin, one of Minato's old students. And speaking of the blond hokage, she remembered the talk she had with her _otuoto_ about him

FLASHBACK

Shizune had just finished her shift at the hospital and was preparing to leave when the door of the changing room burst open. Turning to look who it was, she saw Rin who was leading a familiar kid with dark goggles.

"Here you are, Shizune! See, we found her!"

Shizune smiled "Naru-chan, what are doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Sensei dismissed class early 'cuz when we came back from practice his desk and the benches were glued to the ceiling. At first he thought it was genjutsu."

Shizune sweat dropped "You wouldn't happen to know how it happened, would you?"

"What? Of course no, nee-chan, I was doing practice with the rest of the class!" Naruto said it with so much innocence, surprise and conviction that Shizune wondered if he should forget being a ninja and try to become an actor. He definitely had talent.

"Well, what should I do with you now? I had told Minato that I would have lunch with him."

"Are you dating him, Nee-chan?" the question made him sound wary.

"No, we're just friends. And even I were it wouldn't be your business." She said the last sentence teasingly pinching his nose.

"You're my nee-chan, and it's my duty to make sure you don't end up with a jerk that isn't good enough for you."

Shizune promptly ignored Rin's comment about how sweet he was.

"So you think that Minato-kun, the fourth hokage, the legendary yellow flash, one of the most caring, brave, kind and handsome man in the whole fire country…You think that he isn't good enough?"

"Maybe. For now he has to make you happy, because if you hurt her I'll choke you with your legs Blondie."

"Hehe, got it."

Shizune turned towards the door and to her horror Minato was standing there, 'Oh my god he heard that. What do I do, what do I do?'

FLASHBACK ENDS

After that she and Minato had gone to have lunch together, while Naruto said he would stay with Rin. However, the fact that they talked, enjoyed themselves during lunch, and even that Minato asked her out didn't stop her from trying to make her little brother in a pincushion later.

* * *

Tsunade was happy. She was happy to be back in her native village, something she didn't think was possible since Dan's death. She even left the cottage every now and then to wander around in town.

She looked at her son with a smile. It was unreal how fast and deeply they grew fond of each other. The fact that they didn't share the same blood seemed to make their bond even stronger rather than weakening it. The only one that gave it any importance was Danzou, who decided that Naruto wasn't important because he didn't have the shodaime's blood. This made Tsunade happier, if she thought about what Orochimaru had done in his attempts to recreate her grandfather's mokuton abilities...

She dismissed those thoughts and looked at the three children under a nearby tree. Two were playing shogi while the third was eating a bag of chips.

Chouji and Shikamaru had become Naruto's best friends, mostly because both the Inuzuka's dogs and the Aburame's bugs were wary of him. Probably they felt the power of his bloodline somehow. As for the Uchiha, Naruto seemed to have an inexplicable dislike for him. It had nothing to do with his arrogance or even the fact that he was the best student. Actually it was plainly obvious that Naruto held back because he didn't want the other boy to go after him.

Then there were the girls. Putting aside the fact that crazy fan girls weren't exactly friendly, he seemed more interested in older girls, like Hana and that one who worked at the ramen stand, Ayame.

Girls...Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle when she remembered their meeting with the civilian council, telling them about how their daughters had to defeat her for her son's hand in marriage had been one of the funniest things ever.

FLASHBACK

"Tsunade-sama, it's a pleasure to see you again. We wanted to welcome you and your son back, we heard that Hyuuga-sama has already made a proposal for his daughter."

The female sannin couldn't bring herself to care about what she used to call 'the useless and stupid part of the council'. Then again, when she was young she called the clan heads and the elders 'the stupid part of the council.'

She hated politics, and she had never had the patience or the diplomacy to deal with 'the old fools.' On the other hand Naruto seemed to like this new game and, if the meeting with the clan heads was anything to go by, he was really good at it too. So she decided to just let him play.

"Hello, I'm Naruto. You're the civilian council, right?"

An old merchant answered him "Yes, you're right boy. Some years ago the yondaime hokage split up the council in two part to make things easier. But you'll understand that better when you're older…"

"So, now you take care of the internal economy of the village, taxes, and trades; while the elders and the clan heads take care of the military forces and at the same time defend your trades with other countries and provide money to invest from outside sources with their missions."

Tsunade toyed with the idea of making him clan head now and letting him go to the council meetings in her place in her mind.

"You're a very smart kid, Naruto," another man said, "Do you plan to be a ninja? Yes? And you said you're six? What a coincidence, my daughter is your age and will start the academy next month, I'm sure you can be friends. I hope Hyuuga-sama won't be senselessly jealous."

"Why should she? It's not like we're engaged or anything."

This surprised the civilians "What? We thought Hiashi-sama told you about his intentions?"

Naruto grinned at them "Ah, that. Yeah, he did but he can't force me, and if he tries my mom will take care of everything!"

When they looked at her Tsunade couldn't suppress an evil smile, "Right, you don't have to worry about anything Naru-chan, mom will make sure that whoever comes won't get to you if she isn't good enough."

"May we ask what you're talking about Tsunade-sama?"

"Of course. You see, as the other clan heads already know, anyone who wants to arrange a marriage with my son is free to do so, the only requirement is that his future wife has to beat me in an all-out sparring match."

The blond medic thought she had seen an old lady faint before she turned to go home with little Naruto.

FLASHBACK ENDS

"What are you thinking?" Shikaku asked.

They took turns housing the kids in the afternoon, they were at his house today.

"Just remembering the faces of the council members when they realized they will have to pass over my body to get to Naruto. Quite literally," She answered with a smile.

"Right, Inoichi was wondering why he wouldn't want to marry many girls last night. I said him that if I were him I'd do the same, life is hard enough with just one woman."

As soon as he finished speaking a wooden spoon impacted with his head. "Did you say something, honey?" Yoshino, Shikaku's wife, asked glaring at her husband.

"Nothing, dear," He waited for her to go back in the house before whispering "troublesome woman."

* * *

Shogi had quickly become one of Naruto favourite games. He and Shikamaru could be seen playing almost everyday, even during class. They just communicated what they were moving and where, the board and pieces in their mind.

Today however they were out of school and under a tree, where they could use them. Naruto moved a piece and went back to reading his book. It seemed that even Shikamaru could be riled up if you gave him a good reason, like beating him at shogi while reading at the same time.

The book in question wasn't one of those orange ones his godfather wrote. The first and last time Jirayia gave him that as a birthday present his kaa-san sent him to sleep at Shikamaru's while she had a word with "that fucking stupid pervert with a shit-brain". He thought he heard some girlish screams for mercy that night.

It was one about myths and demons. Since Iruka-sensei mentioned the nine bijuu during class and gave an outline of what jinchuuriki were, Naruto had made it his personal task to find out all the info he could about it.

Closing his book, the orange clad boy looked at the board. After a couple of minutes he met Shikamaru's eyes "A draw?"

The pineapple haired boy nodded. "At least I haven't lost. So, what about tomorrow?"

"What about it?" Naruto asked tilting his head.

"You didn't forget it, did you? Tomorrow there's the graduation exam. Do you plan to hold back for it too?"

"Of course," Naruto replied with a frown "I'll leave the title of rookie to Sasuke, his head is big enough for just one thought at a time, and if I were to do better than him he will never leave me in peace no matter what. Single minded obsessive prick."

Chouji snickered at his comment and then went to look at the clouds with the other two, the only difference was that he had a bag of chips with him.

He was happy that Shikamaru and Naruto were his friends. Both of them were very smart and didn't judge him because of his appearance. And while Shikamaru was a family friend, Naruto appreciated good food. He had never really understood why when he invited him to come with him at that new cake shop an anbu stopped them though, it did seem to have something to do with sugar.

Regardless Naruto had his moments, like when he entered the classroom crashing through on the window the second day of school. He said the door was boring. Then went to seat down and slept the rest of the morning. His explanation was that the lesson was boring too.

* * *

The day after that a twelve year old Naruto went to school wondering how many of his classmates would be able to graduate to become genin. When he arrived he took a seat near Chouji , leaned his head on the table and promptly fell asleep. The fact that he always wore his dark goggles had been a blessing the past six years, with them on the teachers weren't able to tell if he had his eyes open or closed, letting him sleep unnoticed.

He was jerked awake just before the start of the exam. The first part was a written test to which he answered correctly except for a question that he left blank without even reading it.

The second part was a little more interesting: kunai and shuriken throwing accuracy. He hit bull's eyes with all his kunai except the last, which ended up going through a window interrupting another class's lesson. _Unintentionally_, of course.

Finally the last part was one of the three basic ninjutsu (kawarimi, henge, and bunshin) chosen randomly by Iruka-sensei. Naruto had to do three bunshin. He managed to do them thanks to his mother teachings about chakra control. Seriously, he was sure that breathing used more chakra than that jutsu, and overloading it would have meant failing the exam. Anyway he had passed and was now facing the hardest part of the whole ordeal.

'Do I take the hitai-ate with the black cloth or the one with the red cloth? Mmmmmh…'

He had been standing there for ten minutes now, and Mizuki seemed to want nothing more than to strangle him while Iruka had a vein pulsing on his forehead. Suddenly the boy had an idea on how to choose.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, do you fear more seeing blood or being in the darkness?"

The chuunin blinked at the random question, "I think being in the darkness, it can be dangerous if we can't see our enemy."

Naruto grinned, "Thanks!" He took the black headband and went out where his mother and nee-chan were waiting him, leaving behind two very confused teachers.

* * *

After celebrating Naruto went out for a walk. He liked walking in the forest at night it made him feel free and at peace. It took a lot of promises that he would be careful before Tsunade allowed him to wander alone, but in the end he was still inside the village so he convinced her. Besides he was a ninja now.

Naruto closed his eyes and listened to the nightly sounds of the forest: the crickets, an owl, the wind between the branches, a panting ninja coming his way… Wait, that's not normal.

The young genin hastily put up his goggles that were hanging on his neck and went to see who was there and why. Hiding behind a tree he observed the clearing in front of him. Mizuki was there, panting and holding a big scroll that didn't looked like it was his, in fact it looked like the forbidden scroll. How the _chuunin_ managed to steal it Naruto didn't know nor did he care.

Sneaking behind him, he moved with the usual speed and precision he used to steal things, and took the forbidden scroll without him noticing. Naruto however wanted to know _why_ Mizuki betrayed the village.

"Are you going somewhere, _sensei_?"

Mizuki spun around and released a sigh of relief when he saw who it was. For a second he feared the anbu had already caught him. "Naruto, you shouldn't be out here this late. I was just doing my patrol around the village."

The boy raised an eyebrow, did he really think he was so stupid? "With the forbidden scroll on your back? Ok, let me rephrase that. Where had you planned to go after betraying the village and why did you do it?"

Mizuki then saw that the orange clad boy had taken the scroll from him. He cursed, he didn't have time for this, and now he'll have to kill him making an enemy out of one of the sannin. However… his master, Orochimaru, was _the_ strongest sannin, and the last time the great Tsunade had lost someone dear to her she simply went away to get drunk and gamble away her money, so maybe it wasn't that bad.

"I'm sorry brat, you shouldn't have come here tonight. I wonder if your mother will go to drown herself in alcohol again or she'll just decide to put an end to her lif-"

He was stopped by a hand that grabbed his face. Suddenly he felt himself being smashed through a tree and onto the ground. The hand still hadn't released its hold and looking up Mizuki saw that it was Naruto's. The young genin then leaned closer, "Shhh... Trust me, you really don't want to say that." The tone with which he said that sent chills down Mizuki's spine.

And his fear only increased when Naruto took off his dark goggles and stared him in the eyes, their faces only an inch from each other. Glowing red eyes with slits for pupils looked right through him, locking his very soul in an ice-cold grip.

Then he spoke again, his voice a barely audible whisper. "If you EVER mock or insult my mother, I swear I'll make you _beg_ me to kill you before I even start. Is that clear?"

Mizuki tried to nod, but he couldn't move. He couldn't breath. He couldn't think. Even his heart had trouble beating. All he was able to do was looking into those red slitted eyes and feel terror.

Then Naruto picked him up for his shirt and punched him. Both of them could hear clearly the snap of several ribs before the chuunin coughed up blood and fell unconscious to the ground.

Naruto closed his eyes and took deep breathes. 'Stay calm, calm down, it wouldn't be good to kill him now, he didn't say anything after all. Now go and clean up this mess.' Opening his eyes again he crouched down on beside the traitor and concentrated. Slowly a red energy covered his right hand. Naruto then touched Mizuki's forehead and murmured "delete".

Once he did that, the red eyed boy took the scroll, opened it and started to read. The first jutsu, the kage bunshin, was an interesting technique that basically required only a large amount of chackra to work. Naruto smirked, 'Loads of chacka, mh? Lucky me.'

Putting the information on that jutsu aside, he gave a look at what else was in there, when he came across something that caught his eye.

'Well, well, well, what do we have here? Shiki Fuujin, a sealing technique that summons the Shinigami himself. It seems it's true that no one is invincible, with this it's possible to seal away and eventually kill anything,' Naruto thought to himself.

Then a smile appeared on his face. 'But if it's true that nothing is invincible, then even this jutsu has a weakness. The first is obvious, it can be used just once because it claims the user's life. However there is another, here it says that the sealer must pull out his enemy's soul, so it can be assumed that, if he's severely injured or weakened and the opponent has a strong will, the soul extraction can be fought and even beaten, making the sealing effectively useless.'

Naruto continued to study the sealing jutsu until he heard someone approaching. He pulled up his goggles and closed the scroll before standing up to greet whoever was coming. It turned out that they were a couple of anbus who were looking for Mizuki. Naruto simply handed them the forbidden scroll and pointed at the still unconscious traitor.

"He badmouthed my mother, so I punched him like she taught me." The two anbus couldn't help but cringe thinking just how strong his mother punched. If this brat had acquired even half of that strength…

"Oh crap, my mom! She's gonna kill me I'm late, very very very laaaate. See you around!" Naruto left the anbus with Mizuki and the scroll while he ran home.

* * *

"… then he ran home." The anbu finished his report.

Minato nodded and dismissed him. The security in the village really needed to be improved if a single chuunin could cause all these problems. What puzzled him the most however, was that he couldn't see Mizuki in the crystal ball, something that Sarutobi said had never happened before.

Just when the anbu opened the door, another kunoichi came in yelling rather loudly.

"HOKAGE-SAMA! Nice evening don't you think? I've come to thank you for sending me that little toy to play with!"

"Hi Anko, how did it go with Mizuki? Has he said anything?"

The purple head sat on his desk and crossed her legs, letting her coat show her not-so-much-covered body underneath. Minato idly wondered how hard Naruto would punch him if he saw him now.

"Yeah, the little shit stain told me who he worked for," Anko said seriously, every trace of playfulness gone, "Seems the snake bastard was behind this. Do you remember that mission when one of Mizuki teammates' mysteriously died?"

The blond hokage nodded, they had a suspicion that it was Mizuki who killed him but couldn't prove it.

"Well that's when that traitorous bastard contacted him. As for what happened tonight, he can't remember what happened, just that he met Tsunade-sama's boy and he punched him. He wet himself when I asked if he insulted the boy's mother, though."

The yondaime hummed to himself "Probably his memory is confused from the hit on his head, but he wet himself because he subconsciously knows that whatever he said caused his situation."

Before anything could be added there was a knock on the door. It was the jounin sensei that would meet their new teams tomorrow, and among them Minato could see his old student Kakashi, the Sandaime's son Asuma, and…

"Look who's here, her Majesty the genjutsu princess." Anko greeted leaking sarcasm.

"Mitarashi-san, last I heard you were in the torture and interrogation department. Do you mind explain what are you doing on the hokage's desk?" asked Kurenai Yuuhi with equal bite.

It was a widely known fact that the two couldn't stand each other. Kurenai thought that Anko behaved like a whore, and her choice of clothes just confirmed it…And Anko couldn't stand that the 'pretty princess' looked down on her with that air like she was better than her.

The fourth however wouldn't have them arguing in his office. "I'm sorry, but there had been a little incident earlier. If you all could wait a second, we'll begin as soon as Anko finishes her report."

Anko smiled triumphantly at that. Once they were alone again Minato spoke up, "Anko listen, I know that this is your way to cope with what happened with Orochimaru and how the villagers treat you, but you're just making it harder. I know I can't understand what it's like, but you need to open up to people, not scaring them away, and Kurenai doesn't really hold a grudge against you, she just…"

"She treats me like a whore because she's a hypocrite bitch who looks only at the appearances. If that's all, hokage-sama, I have some work to do. By your leave."

Minato sighed, he really wanted to do more for her but he didn't know how, 'Well, I'll think of something later, now it's team assignment time."

* * *

That was it. Now I'll give the answers to some questions my beta asked, I put them here just in case you were wondering the same things.

_Wow does Naruto have darker side or what? It looks like his laid back attitude is a way to not get upset and do something that he would regret later, i.e. kill Mizuki. And some questions would be: Where did he learn the "delete" thing? Does Tsunade know about it or has Naruto hidden it even from her?_

You can say that Naruto has a darker side. His laid back attitude is in his nature, but insulting his family means insulting everything he has and cares about, not a smart thing. The 'delete' thing is something he learned on his own, later he'll say it's something he 'remembered'. Ironic, isn't it? Lastly, Tsunade has trained him and raised him, so it's safe to assume she knows. She never spoke about it though, with neither Jirayia, Shizune, or even Naruto himself. Mother love…

If there are other questions just ask, I'll be happy to answer. Keep in mind that I am purposely giving only small hints about what's up with Naruto, his mystery will be revealed only later.


	8. Teams

I'm sure there was something I had to write here, but I can't remember what…

About the M-rating of this story. I know that it doesn't seem like that right now, but in future there may be some more violence, and I'm currently indecisive about lemons but it's a possibility.

Anyways, to answer **fan1213874320():** that already happened, the quote you asked about referred to the meeting with the council.

Now read and enjoy.

**Strawberry Seraph: I hadn't noticed but... We needed a disclaimer.**

**DISCLAIMER: The author does not own Naruto.**

**CHAPTER 8 – TEAMS**

Iruka was walking out of the hokage tower with a folder in his hands. He still couldn't believe how Mizuki tried to betray the village, nor would he have imagined that Naruto had it in him to stop him.

Although, now that he thought about it, it was to be expected that Tsunade-sama had taught him some things. After all he performed always almost flawlessly in class, just a couple of points below Sasuke. _Always_ one or two points below him.

Iruka stopped in his track, a sudden thought on his mind. 'Could it be that he purposely held back? After all his grades are just too precise, he's always been just behind Sasuke. Even that one time that Sakura managed to perform best in a written test, Naruto ended up making less points than usual to be just behind Sasuke. But why? It doesn't make sense! Maybe I'm just imaging things.'

He shook his head and looked at the folder in his hand. In that there were his now ex-students' future teams, assuming that they'd pass their jounin sensei's test. Iruka was optimistic though, there were a lot of promising shinobi this year.

'Well,' he thought, 'I shouldn't make them wait.'

Haruno Sakura fixed her pink her and looked in the mirror for the last time. Satisfied with her reflex, she said goodbye to her mother and went out to get to the academy. Today they'll announce the team assignment, and she hoped with all her might to be on Sasuke's team. They'd get to know each other better and then... She blushed furiously and almost walked into a wall.

"Hey forehead-girl, what's up? Can't you even walk straight any more?"

"Shut up, Ino-pig! I was just thinking about how I'll spend my time with Sasuke-kun once we'll be on the same team."

"Tsk, right, keep dreaming billboard. I'm going to see _my_ Sasuke-kun at the academy now."

The blond then walked ahead, but was soon joined the other who left her a couple of steps behind. From then on they started to run as if the first would have won Sasuke's heart.

Their contest ended with the both of them flying through the classroom door at the same time, quickly followed by an argument about how there was a mile between them.

Naruto, who was peacefully sleeping in his seat, grumbled something before taking two empty bags of chips from Chouji, rolled them into two pellets, and tried to cover his ears with them. Chouji chuckled at him while Shikamaru complained about 'troublesome women'.

Just when the two girls were about to start a fight, however, Iruka came in shouting to shut up and sit down. Once they did that he started a speech about how proud he was of them and the life that awaited them as Konoha ninja. As usual Naruto didn't hear a word, choosing instead to look around the class at the other graduated.

Sakura and Ino where glaring at each other, while at the same time stealing glances at Sasuke. They weren't exactly what you can call strong and dependable kunoichi, in fact they spent almost all their time chasing after the Uchiha instead of training. Like all the girls of their class.

The only exception was Hinata Hyuuga, but even if she had powerful eyes, her confidence was a major issue. Which was a shame because she seemed to be someone he could have been friends with, if only she had managed to stay conscious long enough to say something more than two stuttered syllables.

Not far from her were Akamaru and his pet Kiba. 'No wait, maybe it was the other way around…' Looking at them made Naruto remember what he read about the Gobi, the five tailed dog. Granted their power was nothing like the bijuu's, but they were doggy too and had a good teamwork, their problem was that Kiba was brash, loud and arrogant.

And speaking of arrogance, Sasuke was without doubt in that category, the prick wouldn't admit he's facing a stronger opponent even if said opponent killed him and he really behaved like a pathetic drama queen. That aside however he had powerful eyes, eyes neither him nor anyone else should have.

The only one that spoke less than the Uchiha was Shino Aburame, a nice guy in Naruto's eyes, smart and good with his insects, even if he seemed wary since his bugs refused to attach themselves to Naruto.

And naturally there were Chouji and Shikamaru, while the first was generally kind and had physical strength, the latter was quite clever. 'And they're my best friends,' Naruto couldn't help but smile at the thought.

His little evaluation of his class was interrupted by Iruka who started to announce the various teams.

"Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Shino Aburame."

The boys unanimously ignored Sakura's happy shout about how true love prevailed anything, while the girls glared at her.

"Team 8 will be Hinata Hyuuga, Chouji Akimichi, and Kiba Inuzuka."

Naruto and Shikamaru looked apologetically at Chouji who just smiled at them and shrugged, silently saying that it was all right, even if they weren't on the same team.

"Team 10 will be Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Senju, and Ino Yamanaka."

"WHAT? NO WAY! How am I supposed to work with those two? They're always sleeping, and when by some sort of miracle they're awake Shikamaru complains and Naruto says weird stuff!" Ino yelled out.

"Weirdness is just a question of points of view," the orange clad boy muttered.

"Did you hear him? He's a weirdo!"

Iruka raised an eyebrow at the blond girl, "Yes, I heard that, and it actually made a lot of sense. It was really deep if you ask me."

"Thanks sensei. Do you see Ino? That's exactly what I meant," Naruto spoke grinning like crazy. Oh, he'll enjoy driving the bossy girl insane.

Iruka sighed seeing her become red from anger and decided to cut their argument short and resumed calling out the other teams. In the end he put the folder that he was reading away and addressed the class for the last time, "You can go to have lunch now, report here in an hour to meet your jounin sensei. Dismissed."

Meanwhile in the hokage tower all the jounin sensei had been watching their future students through the hokage's crystal ball. The old Sandaime was also there, curious about the next generation of leaf ninjas.

"I had to agree with Blondie," Asuma said, "that kid is weird. Although it wouldn't be the first among us…"

The figure of Kakashi coming in right then, giggling while reading a book, simply confirmed his words. The fact that, just before he closed the door behind him, they could hear a yell about how the flames of youth will eventually defeat his hip attitude reminded them that there was something even worse out there.

"Well, while I must agree with you that Naruto is rather…" the Yondaime paused to search for the right word, "original, he's still one of the best students we had this year. He just needs some motivation, like Shikamaru, whose grades however were among the lowest."

Asuma looked at the blond hokage with a light scowl, "And _I_ should be the one to motivate them while at the same time breaking the Yamanaka out of her fangirlism?"

Minato didn't know if he wanted to smile at how lazy the jounin sounded or if it was for the best to change teams. But it was already too late for the latter, so he simply nodded. However a sudden thought hit him. With that little monster on the team… "Asuma, I don't know how you're planning to test them, but whatever you do, don't use the bell test. Tsunade's son skills as a thief are unbelievable."

The hokage ignored the curious gazes of the other jounin, it wasn't their business what had been stolen or from who.

"Anyway, Kakashi you already knew what your team would be, just try not to get lost while you go at the academy," the masked jounin smiled sheepishly at his old sensei, "Kurenai, you've been given the Hyuuga heiress, I assume you remember that our spies had warned us of a possible threat from Cloud because of her bloodline…?"

The genjutsu mistress nodded. There hadn't been any attempt to kidnap her or her sister so far, which only meant that Kumo was planning their moves carefully.

"Very well, if none of you have any more questions then you can go."

Ino turned out to be better than Naruto initially thought, in fact she joined him and Shikamaru for lunch. He would have bet that she'd gone chasing her crush. However her next declaration made him doubt that it was indeed a good thing she hadn't.

"Now listen, since I'm stuck with you two as team mates you'll have to change. I refuse to do all the work when you two sleep, so from now on you'll follow my orders, is that clear?"

Naruto and Shikamaru exchanged glances.

After a minute Shikamaru muttered, "Troublesome woman." Nonetheless the Nara boy smirked when he recognized a familiar smirk on the other boy's face. An evil smirk.

Pasting a foxy grin on his face, Naruto turned towards Ino, "What you said was clear, but I'm not going to do it. I didn't know you were so bossy, though. Maybe Sasuke doesn't go out with you 'cuz he isn't into bdsm."

Ino looked at him with a confused expression, "What's bdsm?"

If possible Naruto's grin became even wider, "Oh, just something my kyoufu told me about once. It basically means bondage, and is when people use things like chains, handcu-"

His little speech was interrupted by a very red faced Ino who tried to kill him. Naruto jumped out of her reach and began to run, closely followed by a murderous girl. He didn't think to have embarrassed her enough however and yelled over his shoulder, "Ino, why are you chasing me? I thought you liked Sasuke?"

The orange haired boy laughed when she launched a kunai in response.

Shikamaru looked at them and smiled, 'Naruto isn't too troublesome, and Ino will be busy annoying him instead of me. Now all I have to worry about is our sensei, if he isn't a slave driver I can go back to cloud watching. God, I hope he isn't a she.'

Seeing their time was almost up, the pineapple haired boy got up and went back to the academy. He knew that Naruto would eventually come too, bringing Ino with him in the process.

And indeed, not even a minute after he sat down, his two team mates joined him. What surprised him was that Naruto didn't have a scratch on him, probably Ino couldn't keep up with him. In fact despite the fact that his shogi partner was as lazy as him, he was a stamina freak and could outrun almost everyone if he wanted to.

Luckily for Naruto the wait for their sensei wasn't long enough to allow Ino to regain her breath and try again to kill him. The first two jounin to come were a woman with long black hair and red eyes, which caught Naruto's interest, and a bearded man who looked vaguely like a monkey.

"Team 8," called the female jounin, "training ground 16, you have five minutes."

"Team 10," spoke up the other, "come with me."

In Shikamaru's head chibi-Shika was doing the victory dance, displaying much more enthusiasm than the boy himself has ever had.

Once they reached their training ground their new sensei addressed them, "I'm Sarutobi Asuma, in charge of team ten starting today. I'll be strict on you guys, so be prepared." He paused to search for something in his jacket, 'Damn, where did I put my cigarettes?'

"Mmh… why don't you say something about yourselves? You know, to get to know each other better." He added that continuing to rummage in his pockets, "You can go first, goggles-boy."

"Ok. I'm Naruto Senju, adopted son of Tsunade of the Sannin. I like my family and friends, freedom, sponges and ramen. I dislike whoever insults those I care about. My hobbies are sleeping, doing pranks, and playing shogi. My goals for the future are find certain people and have lots of s-something."

He seemed to think for a second, then he added "Asuma-sensei, my mother is a medic and she'll agree with me that you shouldn't smoke, it can cause hair loss, cancer, breathing trouble, impotence…"

Asuma froze. Then looked at the boy. He had his cigarettes in his hands. 'Now I know what hokage-sama meant, but when and how the hell did he steal those?' Outwardly he just coughed and pointed towards Shikamaru.

"Troublesome. I'm Shikamaru Nara. I like cloud watching. I don't like troublesome things. My hobby is playing shogi. I plan to marry a girl who is neither beautiful nor ugly, have kids, and retire to a peaceful life."

Asuma sweat dropped 'Oh my god, this kid sounds like zombie. Let's hear what my last student is like.'

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, I like…someone, my hobby is arranging flowers and my dream…" She chuckled blushing. The three males just rolled their eyes at her antics. "And I dislike Sakura and these two lazy asses."

Shikamaru and Naruto looked at each other, shrugged, and said in perfect synchrony, "You're loss. Troublesome girl."

Asuma noted with some satisfaction that his female student had already learned how to release some killing intent, and his other two pupils managed to ignore it quiet well.

"Ok, listen well. I want you to come here tomorrow at seven a.m., and bring all your gears, we're going to do a test to see if you're good enough to be a genin team. Obviously if you were to fail you'd be sent back into the academy."

Ino looked at him with wide eyes, Shikamaru muttered his favorite word, and Naruto… well, Asuma couldn't see his eyes, but judging from his posture and the light snoring…

"Wake up, kid! Jeez, how can you hope to be a ninja if you fall asleep during a briefing? Make one of your team mates tell you what I said, now go home you three, I'll see you tomorrow." Then with a single handseal and a poof of smoke he disappeared.

The following morning Naruto was sleeping like a log when he fell from the bed. He sleepily looked up from the floor to see that his mother had lifted his bed to make him roll out of it. He sat up rubbing his head and yawning, "Whuzz up?"

Tsunade smiled down at him noticing he was holding a sponge in his hand, "Breakfast is ready. You should hurry or you'll end up being late. You have to meet your team, have you not?"

He yawned again before standing up. Once he was on his feet however Tsunade noted another thing, "Naru-chan, where do those boxers come from?"

Naruto looked at his boxers with frogs, "They're kyoufu's gift, he gave me them for my last birthday. Why?"

The medic nin blinked, "Ah… Nothing. Come on, don't waste time. You have a test that awaits you."

The red eyed boy changed and went to eat breakfast. Then, before going out, he strapped his kunai pouch on his right leg and put on his dark goggles. When he was at the door he glanced back and saw Tsunade looking at him with a half smile.

He walked back, "What's wrong kaa-san?"

She shook her head and caught him in a hug, "Nothing's wrong. Be careful once you become a ninja, ok?"

"Kaa-san," he said hugging her back, "you know I'll be all right, it isn't like something can happen to me."

The blond woman chuckled and kissed his head, "I know. But it's my duty and my right to worry, no matter what. Now go, you're going to be late."

Naruto let go of his mother and ran out waving back at her. Ten minutes later he arrived at the same training ground they were at the day before, just at the same time Asuma appeared with a shunshin.

"Very well, you're all on time. Now let's get this over with, shall we? I've hidden two marked kunai in the hokage tower, your task is to retrieve them. The ninja who work there have been warned of this test, so if they see you they'll act as if you were enemy ninja. Whoever comes back with a kunai will pass, if you're seen you'll automatically fail. Any question?"

Naruto exchanged a look with Shikamaru.

The two then turned towards their sensei, and the orange clad boy spoke up, "Do you really want us to try to do it or can we just give the solution now?"

Asuma seemed surprised while Ino looked at them in confusion "What do you mean? What solution?"

"Think Ino," Shikamaru said, "the hokage tower is the most guarded building in the whole village. There is a continuous flown of ninja who go there to have their missions, plus the anbu that make patrols around it. No one is supposed to be able to sneak in, let alone a genin."

"Besides," Naruto added, "if you stop to think about it, why only two kunais when we are three? It's clearly a trick to divide us. The best plan in a situation like this would be to create a diversion while someone else tries to infiltrate in the building, something that requires not only stealth, but also what this entire test is really about."

"Teamwork." Shikamaru concluded.

Asuma looked at the two boys in wonderment, 'Seems that all their playing shogi has created two masterminds.' He clapped at them, "Congratulations, it seems you're passed and already are officially team 10. However, since we already set up everything, go and try to retrieve those scrolls. Consider it as our first training exercise."

He regretted those words the second he said them, when a foxy grin had appeared on Naruto's face, "I'll provide the distraction."

Half an hour later team 8, lead by Kurenai, was coming back from their training ground after passing their test. The genjutsu mistress had decided to celebrate inviting her new students for lunch, but as soon as they got in town she could fell that something was wrong.

An abnormal number of ninjas were running toward the south gate and many civilians were hurrying to their homes. Making a quick decision, she instructed her genin to go to their respective clan compounds while she herself made her way to the south gate.

Once she got there she immediately felt a faint and strange trace of chakra in the air, something the jounin easily connected to the use of genjutsu. Before she could do anything however an anbu not too far from her dispelled it, only to have another one being cast just as fast.

What caught Kurenai's eye was that said genjutsu was aimed to affect a large area, and the only ones who actually fell for it were the civilians and those who had definitely no talent whatsoever to dispel them, like some low level chuunin, all of whom started to chirp or bleat and behave like animals.

Looking up she could only sweat drop when an orange clad, goggles wearing laughing boy, ran using the chaos he created to dodge and hide from anbu and jounin. Was this how Asuma thought to help the boy? Letting him set up a large scale prank on the village while he should be tested?

Nonetheless, putting aside from his childish behavior, Kurenai couldn't help but be a little jealous that Asuma had gotten someone talented for her field on his team while her own students hadn't even shown interest for genjutsu. And speaking of her students…

"What are you doing here? Didn't I say you to go home?" she asked looking at them over her shoulder.

Hinata flushed lightly and looked down at her question, while Kiba, who obviously had dragged his two team mates there with him, answered, "But sensei, we too are ninja now, we wanted to know what's going on and help!"

For his part Chouji simply took out a bag of chips and chuckled saying that he didn't think Naruto would do a prank this big without warning him.

Naruto's fun time however was cut short a second after when, with a yellow flash, the Yondaime hokage appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him from his waist.

"Well," he said, "what do you think you're doing Naruto? Isn't this a little overboard for a prank?"

The civilians and other ninjas, now free from the genjutsu, stared at the two of them, some with irritation, others in interest.

Naruto scratched his head and looked around, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to cause trouble, but it's necessary for a good distraction. This way my team mates should have been able to retrieve the two marked kunai like sensei asked us to."

As the gathered people seemed to decide that he hadn't done anything unforgivable, Minato put him down sighing, "I suppose that by now your team mates will have completed their mission. You're with the Yamanaka girl right? If she has taken control of a ninja who works at the tower it should have been easy with all the anbu you have made come here."

He gave the boy a glance over and leaned over to add in a whisper, "Thanks for providing me an excuse for leaving my office for a minute." Then with another flash he was gone.

As soon as the blond hokage left Chouji neared Naruto and offered him a chip.

"That must have been your best prank ever, and you even had a perfect valid excuse to do it," the big boned boy commented.

"Thanks. Hey, what are you doing here with your team? Have you already done your test? Did you pass? You're Kurenai-san right? Nice to meet you, I've heard you're a genjutsu specialist, can you suggest me a good book on it?"

The young jounin was a bit taken aback when he said all of that without stopping to breathe. While she was saying him a couple of titles, she took notice of her female student who was stealing glances at the orange clad boy with growing blush on her face. Kurenai knew that Hiashi had tried to have the two engaged, as well as the agreement Naruto stipulated with the council about any arranged marriage; but if she could help Hinata making _him_ choose her then…

Smiling slightly to herself she and her students left for their celebrating lunch, while Naruto went to meet his other two team mates that had successfully trapped and controlled a chuunin to retrieve the marked kunais.

That evening the jounin sensei reported to the hokage which team passed their test. There was no surprise when Asuma announced the success of his team, many ninja had already heard of the stunt Tsunade's son had pulled, and the Yamanaka and Nara kids were born for infiltration.

Even team Kurenai wasn't a big shock, after all it consisted of three clan heirs, and the Hyuuga girl, even if she wasn't what Hiashi hoped, was still a Hyuuga.

What people were most curious was Kakashi verdict on his team, it was no secret that he had failed every single team assigned to him, but this year he got the Aburame boy, who was considered quiet clever and good at analyzing situations, and the last Uchiha. Some suspected that, even if he failed them, the civilian council may try to ask him to teach young Sasuke anyway, a stupid thing since they had lost all powers in military matters. Such a request would just anger the hokage and the clan heads.

However nothing of it would happen, in fact Kakashi announced that, for the first time in his career, his team had passed his test. Apparently Shino said that it was illogical leaving their female team mate to starve.

Ok, that was it, I'm sorry it took so long but I had things to do and a little writer's block. I hated it and refuse to have another. I also wasn't too happy with the second half of this chapter, but that's the best I managed to write.

If you are interested or want to know why I've made the teams the way they are here is a very short explanation with various input from some reviews.

First of all, I haven't kept the canon teams for two reasons: 1) I'm trying to make this story original, and 2) I've received just one review who wanted the old teams.

Now, I've decided to have all the teams with 2 guys and 1 girl 'cuz at first, when the team are formed, the girls are kind of weak. Let's face it, it's 2 fangirls and one who's too insecure.

Sasuke-Naruto-Ino: too nuch like canon team 7, if I'm going to change things, let's make big changes.

Hinata-Shino-Naruto: well, this would have been kinda hard to write, like someone said it's 3 people who, for different reasons, don't speak.

Also because of Shino's bugs and Akamaru being wary of Naruto I preferred putting them on different teams. On the other hand having the two laziest genin on the same team could be funny.

Anyway, I'm planning to have the wave arc with all three teams, so you'll see them interact even before the chuunin exams, I could explain it now but I really don't feel like writing a summary of the next chapters here and now.

Besides I'm scared of **Baal of yarns**, with her master powers she already predicted the teams, she's reading in my head!


	9. Hospital visit and missions

Hello, did you ask an update? Here it is.

Have you read the last chapter of the manga? I alredy love the eight-tails, if Kishi makes Sasuke kill him I'm going to hurt him badly. Singing, dancing killer bee, he he he.

Anyway, I know this is a little shorter than the previous chaps, but I didn't want to postpone the update to who knows when. So here.

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CHAPTER 9 – HOSPITAL VISIT AND MISSIONS

"This is Ino, I've located the target"

"Good. Shikamaru, it's going your way, be ready."

"Sure. Ah, here. KAGEMANE NO JUTSU!"

The Nara's shadow suddenly extended towards their target's until it reached it. As soon as the two were connected the target could no longer move and Ino jumped out of her hiding spot yelling "SHINTENSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Team 10 had now total control over their target. They had been really efficient and coordinated, something they were supposed to be, but Asuma couldn't stop himself from sweat dropping. "Guys, maybe you overdid it, I mean Tora is just a little cat after all."

Naruto, who held the little cage in which Ino made Tora go before releasing her jutsu, turned towards him, "This thing isn't 'just a little cat.' I read a lot of books, and trust me sensei, I'm sure it's a relative of one of the tailed beasts. No, listen, the two tails is a demon cat and-"

Asuma decided to stop listening to his speech, he already had his own memories of chasing that dem- _Tora,_ and he just may begin to believe his student. He really hoped Naruto started to feel sleepy again soon. His sanity, as well as his other student's, wouldn't survive if he kept up his rambling.

Whatever doubts the jounin sensei had about the Senju heir's weirdness were sadly confirmed: he fell asleep at random times, made rants on the good qualities of _sponges_ of all things, and he _liked_ to do D-rank missions. Asuma was genuinely scared to ask how he could enjoy doing them.

Once they reached the hokage tower, they went in to give their report. After doing all the formalities, Asuma dismissed his genins, giving them the rest of the day off. Ino and Shikamaru went home, while Naruto decided to go to the hospital.

* * *

Sasuke wasn't having a good day. Well, it was more like he wasn't having a good week. Or the last couple of weeks. Ok, he was having a bad time since he graduated; hell, how was he supposed to know that he'd have to do D-rank missions, that in reality were nothing more than mere chores.

He thought that once he graduated he'd do _real_ missions, face strong opponents, do serious training, gain some damn power!

Instead he was struck doing chores with a fangirl and a sensei who, even if powerful, was just a lazy pervert. The only member of his team he could stand was Shino because he left him in peace and was actually smart and strong.

And to make his day worse, they were now running errands for the hospital. Couldn't they find someone else to bring there their medicines?

"Kakashi! How are you?" a medic with light brown hair and two red marks on her cheeks greeted his sensei.

"Hello Rin, I'm fine thank you," the copycat ninja answered putting his orange book away, "My team has brought some supplies for the hospital, do you know where they can leave them?"

"Sure, follow me. Hey Kakashi, do you know that Shizune has become the head of my ward? She's really a great medic and a very nice person, she's even trying to convince Tsunade-sama to come here more often now that Naruto has graduated. By the way, your students were his classmates, right? He's always here, maybe you'll see him around."

"Yeah, they were all in Iruka's class. He should be in Asuma's team, right? But what's he doing in the hospital? Does he get hurt often?"

Sasuke mentally scoffed, how dumb could that idiot be to get hurt doing these D-rank missions? He had never understood how that no-good could have been the second best student in their class, he supposed it was because he read a lot like Sakura.

"No, he's fine. He comes every now and then to say hi, he's very smart you know? And he also knows a couple of medical jutsu, but I suppose that's natural when your mother is the mistress of modern medicine."

"Really?" The one eyed jounin asked clearly impressed, "From what I remember medical jutsu require a kind of control that no academy student has."

"Yeah, I know. Shizune told me that Tsunade-sama has trained him in chakra control since he was really young, at first she made him doing the exercises like a game. He doesn't have the same control of an expert medic nin, but I think he's as good as any jounin, which is really amazing considering how large his reserves are."

By now Sasuke was seething, how come that Mr. Goggles was so good? Of course the last Uchiha didn't think much of medical jutsu, and power and jutsu were more important than control in his book, but even he had to admit that it was surprising that the orange clown had such skills.

As for his team mates, Sakura didn't hear a word, so busy she was carrying the box of medicine and looking at her crush; while Shino simply raised an eyebrow. Aburame weren't exactly known for displaying their emotions.

"Here we are. You can put those boxes there and… Wait a second girl, I need these" Rin said opening Sakura's box and taking a couple of bottles. The pink haired girl mentally cursed, couldn't she wait until she put the damned box down? It's freaking heavy!

"So, tell me Kakashi, how is it to be a sensei?" the medic nin asked.

"Maaa, it's really good, we're having a lot of fun doing D-ranks, aren't we guys?"

His eye-smile didn't help the newly promoted genin's mood as they glared at him. Rin chuckled shaking her head, it seemed that her old team mate was really enjoying putting his students through the torture of D-ranks. She still remembered when they had to do them: baby-sitting, catching Tora, painting fences, catching Tora, buying groceries, catching Tora…

"RIN-CHAAAAAN!" the loud voice of a twelve year old boy entering the storage room surprised the five ninjas "My team has just finished our mission, we had to catch a cat called Tora, sensei wouldn't listen to me but I have a theory about it being a relative of the Nibi no Nekomata."

The medic nin blinked and stared at him. For a second she believed him, then her good sense kicked in. However she knew that arguing was useless, so she changed the topic, "Naruto-kun, it's nice to see you again. This is Kakashi, my old team mate I told you about, and you already know team 7, right?"

"Sure. It's a pleasure to know you Kakashi-san, hello guys." the orange clad boy said bowing and waving.

Shino acknowledged him with a nod of his head, Sasuke 'hned', and Sakura muttered something.

"What was that Sakura?"

"I said that I almost pity Ino. Really, what ninja are you calling a little cat a demon? Sasuke-kun would never say nonsense like that, I wonder how some of the other girls could have thought you were cool."

Naruto smirked, "But I do have my good qualities Sakura, it's just that I'm quite hard to please when I look at possible girlfriends."

The pink haired girl scoffed "Yeah, right. The truth is that you have no charm whatsoever."

Naruto simply gave her another foxy grin, "Whatever." He then looked at their one eyed sensei with interest, "Kakashi-san, can I ask you something? Why do you wear a mask? Do you feel ugly?"

"Naruto, manners," Rin reprimanded.

"I was just curious, besides if I had been your team mate I would have felt ugly too, you know, standing close to such a beautiful girl."

Kakashi sweat dropped seeing Rin blush lightly and grasping him in a hug. "Awww, you're so sweet. Tell you what, I was saving them for later, but I think I'm going to give you them now. Here, a set of needles for you."

The copy-cat ninja shook his head at them and left with his students. As soon as they left Rin looked at Naruto expectantly, "So?"

The boy happily gave her three orange books while a horrified shriek from just outside the hospital was heard throughout all of Konoha.

Rin grinned evilly while stroking Naruto's soft orange hair, "You're such a good boy."

* * *

A week later Kakashi stopped breaking down in tears asking 'why' every time he saw Naruto, Asuma was showing withdrawal symptoms because of lack of smoke, and team 10 was doing a great mission… painting fences.

Naruto and Shikamaru were snickering much to Ino's and Asuma's irritation. Just before getting down to work the two boys decided to make a bet with them involving the color of the paint. Naturally they won, they had managed to make the old lady change her mind thirty-four times about the color with an argument that went on for two hours. In the end they were painting the fences red.

When they finally finished and made their report, Asuma choose to have a little revenge on the two lazy boys and lead them to their training ground for some training. On their way there however, they noticed a perfectly square rock following them. The jounin sensei sighed, 'What have I done to deserve all of this?'

Naruto, who had been much more playful lately, made to sit on the obviously fake rock. It failed under his weight and the orange genin found himself sitting on top of three academy students who were screaming at him to stand up.

"Hey guys, did you hear that? I've found a speaking rock!"

"You baka," Ino yelled "stop being an idiot and let them go!"

Shikamaru ignored them and went to watch the clouds, while Asuma turned toward the little intruders, "Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi, what are you doing here? You know that you shouldn't come to the training grounds without a sensei, you could get hurt from a stray kunai."

"But uncle, we wanted to see your team, gramps said you wouldn't mind."

The jounin had no doubts about his father setting the kids to that just to have some time to read a certain book his student wrote. Maybe he'll ask Naruto to take them like Rin did for Kakashi's.

He heard Ino make a rude comment about ninja playing ninja, just to have Naruto replaying something about kunoichi playing princess. In the end their training was transformed in a chasing game with Naruto and the kids fleeing from an angered Ino.

Asuma sighed and made his way to Shikamaru, "What about a game of shogi, kid? You said it's your hobby, didn't you?"

The pineapple haired boy shrugged and sat up straight.

It didn't take Asuma much to realize that the young Nara was a genius, they made three games and the genin won all of them. He made a mental note to have him take an IQ test, it was strange that he could be so good at strategy given his low grades at school.

* * *

Minato groaned. In front of him were a mission request and a spy report. Both of them were from the same country and if he was right in his assumption their hopeful client was lying knowing it.

However, to be sure, he had called this Tazuna to speak with him. The man who entered his office was old and slightly drunk.

"What's up hokage-sama, have you finally found someone to escort me?"

"Not yet. If you don't mind I would like to have a word with you about your request. You see, it has come to my attention that your country is having some problems lately."

The fourth's blue eyes stared intently at the older man who shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Uhm, yes, it's not a good period, but once my bridge is finished our economy will certainly improve."

"Because Gato will be no more able to control Wave through his shipping company," the blond hokage said sharply, making Tazuna pale, "Have you ever stopped to think that lying on the rank of the mission could get my shinobi killed? I should imprison you myself for purposely omitting information like this, and I'll do if you won't give me a good explanation for your actions."

The bridge builder gulped at the threat, the young leader in front of him was considered one of the strongest ninja alive, and he already got him upset. Sighing in defeat Tazuna told him everything confirming all of Minato's fears.

The yellow flash then dismissed him, saying he'll think about his situation. After about half an hour he called his secretary "Kanede, please summon all the sensei of this year's rookies, and made sure that Kakashi thinks he was supposed to be here four hours ago."

"Sure hokage-sama."

Minato controlled the documents another time while waiting for the teams. Ten minutes later his secretary informed him that they had all arrived and he told them to come in.

"I'm glad you've come here so fast. Now, I want to share with you a problem that has arisen on a mission we have been asked to perform. Our client had initially withhold some info on this particular mission because he can't pay for an higher rank. The economy of his country is in crisis, but almost certainly, if he manages to ultimate the construction of his bridge, it will become rich again soon enough."

Kakashi put away his book and eyed his old sensei, "But we can't just do this mission without payment, after all _our_ economy is based on what we receive for our services, like all ninja villages."

The hokage nodded, "True Kakashi, but if Wave country were to free itself from the control of Gato's company it will become an important commercial outpost, and if they were in debt with Konoha we could benefit greatly."

Kurenai spoke up, "Excuse me hokage-sama, but why are you telling us all of this?"

The blond man smiled mischievously, "Well, as you know I can't send higher level shinobi on a C-rank, and neither can I classify this mission as a B or A-rank without the proper payment; so I was wondering if your teams could perform a nice C-rank in Wave, and since they're rookies they could go all together."

"Numbers instead of quality?" Asuma asked skeptically.

Minato frowned, "It's the best I can do to go around the rules, and after all in this way I can justify the presence of three jounin, it shouldn't be too hard unless that Gato has hired someone like Orochimaru."

Asuma nodded, but soon after his expression darkened.

Kurenai, noticing this, turned towards him, "What's with that face? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, it's about one of my students, Naruto, I just know he'll find a way not to let me smoke for the entirety of this mission."

The genjutsu mistress smiled, now that she thought about it this may be the perfect chance to help Hinata with her crush.

"Really," Asuma continued, "the first day he stole my cigarettes and began saying how they caused cancer, impotence and whatnot."

"Oh, don't worry," a new voice called out from the door, "I'm sure that _that problem_ has nothing to do with smoke, it just happens when your girlfriend is Her majesty the ice princess."

Kurenai had to use all her self control not to kill Anko right then and there. She wouldn't let her get away with it, and facing the snake kunoichi, the red eyed beauty spat out with venom, "But I suppose that someone like you could help anyone in this village with their sexual problems, right Mitarashi?"

The purple head narrowed her eyes at her, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Enough you two. Anko you need to learn that you can't just storm into my office anytime you want or need something. Kurenai, Kakashi, Asuma, you're dismissed, I want you and your teams ready to leave by tomorrow," the young hokage said sternly, he couldn't help the two women with their issues, but he'll be damned if he allowed them to have their arguments in his office.

* * *

Later that evening the nine genin were packing their stuff for an important mission like their respective sensei told them. Naruto in particular had put all of his tools in storage scrolls, gifts from Jiraiya, and the scrolls in a normal backpack. Obviously he had more things than any other of his fellow genin.

Now he was sitting on the couch next to Tsunade, with his head in her lap while she stroked his hair. There was something he wanted to tell her before he left even if he was worried it might upset her.

"Kaa-san?" he said hesitantly.

"What?"

"I think it's finished, I haven't felt anything for a week now."

Tsunade froze and looked him in the eyes, "Are you sure?" He nodded in answer, looking back at her.

"That would explain why you slept less and less lately. How do you feel now?" She wasn't able to completely hide the worry in her tone.

"Good, I'm fine," Naruto answered, then he looked at his hands while clenching and unclenching his fists, "My chakra is a bit more restless and I really want some action every now and then, but I don't have problems controlling it. But it's a good sensation, you know, it's like I was missing something and now I have it. I feel more complete."

Tsunade stared at him for a minute while caressing his head. It seemed that even if the process was finished he didn't change. She was so relieved, she had feared that he would have… It wasn't important, he was the same as ever, her son.

"So, what was that mission you were talking before? How much will it take?" Tsunade asked, fidgeting with her necklace.

"We have to protect a bridge builder and his country till he completes his bridge from a business man, Gato. It will take at maximum three weeks, depending on how much the work will be hindered."

The blond woman hummed before making him stand up. The boy looked at her confusedly until she said him to close his eyes. He did that and felt something being put around his neck. Opening his eyes he saw his mother necklace now hanging from his neck and turned to her shocked.

"But this…"

"Shhh," Tsunade silenced him with a smile,"That's a gift, it will help you."

It was true, Naruto could feel his chakra flowing more calmly, just like when he was near his kaa-san. Her presence had always made him feel serene and at peace and now with the necklace was the same sensation. However he still felt a little bad at accepting it.

"But mom, I thought that this was for a future hokage?"

"The hokage is a powerful protector, and even without that title that's what you are. As long as you remain yourself and you'll protect what's important to you, you won't need to be hokage to wear that."

Naruto stared at her for about three seconds before tackling her in the biggest hug he could manage.

* * *

The mistery that is Naruto thickens. I was trying to sleep this morning (I'm talking about 4am) when I've had kinda an enlightment on how to develop his character.

I'm a little at loss on the jutsu names, I mean techniques like the kage bunshin I have no problem, but when I'll use original jutsu? I mean I can look on dictionaries but I really have no idea on how the Japanese works, and writing half jutsu in English and half in Japanese seems gross.

Anyway, I hope Minato's reasons came out clearly, and if you have any questions I'm here.


	10. Mission begins

Uh…(scratches head)...

Uh… I got lost on the road of life? No, really, I'm sorry it took so long, the truth is that I've been caught up reading other fics and had little time to write myself. Then my beta kinda disappeared... She still hasn't looked at this, but I thought it's been so long that I decided to update regardless. Be warned though, this could be a little messy.

By the way, how many of you think the eight-tails should have killed Sasuke? I'm still hoping that happens. overload the internet until it happens!

Anyway thank you for all the review, but in particular to **Evilshroom**, his review has inspired a scene for the future of this fic.

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CHAPTER 10 – MISSION BEGINS

Hinata made a last minute control of her backpack to be sure that she wasn't forgetting anything. This was her first important mission, something that should have been classified as a B or A-rank, and she didn't want to fail her team mates or any of the other teams.

Kurenai-sensei had explained them the circumstances of this mission and how _all_ the rookies took part in it, even… 'Naruto-kun.' The Hyuuga girl blushed thinking of him, he was always so sure of himself, so relaxed and laid back about everything, like nothing could touch him, yet the same time he wasn't arrogant but nice and funny.

She really admired him and wanted to be more like him, but she just couldn't. She had tried but she was always so nervous, and even if Neiji was helping her it was clear that both him and Hanabi were better than her at juuken.

She had once heard her uncle, Hizashi, telling her father that he shouldn't be disappointed because she could be better at other things and always improve. Hiashi didn't answer him that night, he changed topic saying something about not trusting Kumo, but Hinata couldn't remember, she had stopped listening soon after. The only thing that she had got was that Kumo was apparently trying to acquire the Byakuugan.

Satisfied with her backpack, Hinata put it on her shoulder and went out the compound to reach the east gate, where her sensei had told her they would meet before leaving for Wave country. She was determined not to let down anyone, and who knows, maybe this could be her chance to confess her feelings to Naruto.

In a couple of minutes she arrived at the gate were she spotted two other girls having a not-so-civil argument about Sasuke. She didn't understand how they could be so fixated on him, he was always so cold with everyone.

Said Uchiha was brooding under a nearby tree, while Kiba was glaring at him. Not too far from them there were Kurenai and Asuma who were talking with each other. Kakashi, Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru, and more importantly Naruto were nowhere to be seen.

Hinata quietly sat down near Kiba, even if he was a little brash he still was her team mate and friend, and the only one she could hope to have a word with, at the moment.

After waiting for a minute or two they heard the noise of three people coming. Looking up they saw Shikamaru, Chouji and Naruto having a lively argument, which was a bit of a shock, after all they had never seen the young Nara put effort into anything before. It was like having Shino laugh hysterically, it simply didn't happen.

"I think Shika is right Naruto, if the grass has been cut recently it tickles."

"But it's just that the point, it can give you a scratch on your back. Beside if the grass it's reeeally long it comes into the eyes and disturbs our cloud watching!"

Hearing that bit of their conversation Asuma slapped his face groaning. He had a team with a bossy fangirl and two boys who argued on the length of the grass to lay when cloud watching. What did he ever do to deserve this? The only bright side was that his team won't cause troubles. If the way the Inuzuka glared at the Uchiha was anything to go by, Kure-chan and Kakashi were the ones going to have lots of problems.

Shino was the next to arrive, he nodded at them all and sat down silently.

On the other hand Kakashi didn't come around until twenty minutes later with their client. The copycat ninja scratched his head sheepishly when nine genins and two juonins glared at him. Naruto and Shikamaru found it too troublesome to hold it against him. Maybe the young Senju will prank him later, though.

"He he he, sorry I'm late but Tazuna-san and I had to help and hold lady carrying her bags."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, it seems he didn't have to wait to mess a bit with the jounin, "I didn't know that you did D-ranks in your spare time. Do you need money?"

"What? No, it wasn't a mission."

Shikamaru grinned evilly at him, quickly catching on where Naruto was going, "You aren't saying that you performed a potential mission for free, are you? You'd be threatening our economy otherwise."

"Err, shouldn't we worry about our journey to Wave?" Kakashi said trying to avert the discussion. The two genins chuckled at him.

"All right smart asses," The one eyed Hatake called them, "if you're so clever, why don't you two come up with a plan of action?"

Asuma smirked, if there was something those two good at without doubt it was strategy. When he tested Shikamaru it turned out that the boy was a real genius with an IQ over 200. But when the boy told him that Naruto almost always beat him at shogi he was slightly scared. He still hadn't had time to make Naruto do the test, but for him to be better than Shikamaru…

The young Senju spoke up first, "Well, I think we should separate, we are too many to safely guard Tazuna-san, we'd end up going into each other way."

"One team should go straight to Wave and wait there, so we're sure that once there, there won't be nasty surprise, and they must have a way to communicate with who rests to guard Tazuna-san, so that they can always come back to help in case the others have trouble." The Nara added.

Naruto nodded, "And another team should walk slightly ahead to prevent eventual ambushes. So one in Wave, one ahead on the road, and one with Tazuna. How does that sound Kakashi-sensei?"

Said silver haired jounin and Kurenai looked at Asuma who was smiling at them. The hell with their argument about the grass, he didn't mind any more as long as he could rub into the other senseis' faces how his students could come up with great plans.

However it seemed that a certain pink haired genin had different thoughts.

"What kind of plan is that? We should stay together, it's too dangerous to spilt up!"

"On the contrary Sakura-san," Shino said, "it's only logic to make sure that our destination is a safe place, and the two teams that travel could always regroup for the nights, while still remain separated during the day, making them smaller targets to avoid attention."

"And which team should get which role?" Ino asked her two team mates.

"I'd say that Hinata, Kiba, and Chouji should head to Wave because with the Byakuugan and Akamaru they should be able to tell if the place is safe and when we're coming." Shikamaru reflected out loud, "Sasuke, Sakura, and Shino should travel ahead with the bugs controlling the path."

"Which would leave us with the old drunk." Naruto noted playing with a sake bottle in his hands. It took Tazuna some seconds to realize that it was _his_ bottle with _his_ sake that kid had stolen. The fact that he also had a pack of cigarettes and what looked like pornographic books made quite the picture.

"Kurenai-sensei, we're surrounded by bad people with bad habits." The orange clad boy whined showing her all the things he had. The red eyed jounin shook her head with an half smile, at least it seemed Hinata won't have to worry about him developing one of those addictions, despite the bad examples her colleagues and client were providing.

* * *

"I can't believe we're following those two's plan! Wasn't using our numbers the whole point of sending three teams?" Sakura complained.

It was starting to get on Sasuke's nerves how she won't ever shut up, and the fact that Kakashi was peacefully reading his smut while Shino didn't seem all that affected while his bugs had made a bunshin of Tazuna wasn't improving his mood. He also had trouble accepting the fact they were indeed following the sleeping duo's plan, what made it so good? He could have done better.

The only good thing was that, being in the scouting team, he'll be able to finally fight real opponents and show just how much more skilled he was compared to everyone else. And surely then Kakashi will realize that he was ready for serious stuff and will stop to force him doing stupid chores.

What Sasuke didn't notice during his mental rant was that the jounin had actually put away his precious orange book and was looking ahead at two small pools. Glancing at his students he saw a brooding boy lost in his own world, a girl lost in her fantasies about said boy, and only Shino and his bugs who were aware that something was wrong.

Before he could say anything to warn his two distracted students however, two enemy ninjas wearing Kiri hitai-ate with horizontal slashes jumped out from the puddles and made a dash for Tazuna, who dissolved in a bunch of bugs. Kakashi and Shino were already reacting while Sasuke was a little slower and Sakura went wide eyed and let out a scream of surprise before taking one or two steps back.

Kakashi limited himself at throwing a couple of kunai to keep one of the two enemies away from the Aburame because he wanted to see what his student could do, and soon Sasuke joined the fight too, so that both genin had one opponent.

Shino was using his insects to keep his enemy from coming to close while trying to dry his chakra reserves, while Sasuke engaged his adversary in taijutsu until he managed to send him flying towards his comrade with a kick to the head.

Kakashi however was all to aware that the missing nin had let himself getting hit and sprung into action.

Just when the kicked ninja was about to collide with his comrade, the missing-nin spun around, jumped over him, and attacked Shino, while at the same time the other launched a barrage of shuriken towards Sasuke. It was obvious from how smoothly they moved to exchange their opponents that their teamwork wasn't the result of just a single job together.

The copy nin deflected half of the shuriken aimed for Sasuke with his own, confident that the Uchiha would dodge the others, and punched the nin who was about to hit Shino with his right hand while at the same time grabbing the other with his left and throwing him away. Sparing a glance towards Sasuke he saw he was ok except for a little scratch on his arm.

Their two assailant looked at them and then at each other.

"There are more ninja than expected," began the first one, "we should-"

"-retreat for now, and report this to the boss." The other finished.

They shushined out of there without giving Kakashi the time to stop them. The copycat ninja relaxed his stance and motioned for his students to sit at the border of the street. He would have stopped them or even chased them, but for now he'd rather not endanger his students. Sasuke made to complain about the one eyed jounin decision, but he said that they had to inform Asuma about what happened, and went to look for the young Uchiha little wound. As Kakashi feared it was poisoned, meaning they'll have to come back to have it looked over by a med-nin. Unless…

Some minutes later team 10 and their client came into view. Asuma had a worried look, he had felt some fight was going on.

"Kakashi, did something happened?"

"Yeah, there were two ninja waiting for us. I think I recognized them from the bingo book, they were the demon brothers, missing-nin from Kiri, ranked chuunin. They fled saying something about warning their boss about the fact that we're more than they expected."

"So the next time they'll be prepared to deal with two teams, but I doubt they know about Kurenai's team." Asuma reasoned.

"Yes, but the problem is that Sasuke got poisoned and needs to be treated."

This admission got shocked reaction from said genin and his two fan girls.

"WHAT?" the pink head screamed, "Why didn't you tell it sooner? You should have said this immediately, we need to go back!"

"Calm down Sakura, I didn't said it earlier because if he gets agitated the blood, and consequently the poison, will spread faster through his system. Besides I've been thinking that maybe Naruto could treat him, after all Rin said Tsunade-sama has taught you a bit about medicine?" Kakashi said tentatively.

Naruto shuddered and sat down in front of Sasuke motioning him to let him have a look on his arm, which the dark haired boy did begrudgingly and showing little trust in his ex-classmate skills.

"Naruto, you better heal him, Sasuke-kun can't die before we got on our date!" Sakura proclaimed.

The whiskered genin looked at the Uchiha "Are you sure you want me to treat you? I mean, if you want so badly to get away from her, you have my support and understanding."

"Naruto! Stop being an idiot, and be serious for once. Is Sasuke-kun going to die?" a scared Ino yelled.

"Yes," Naruto said shocking everyone, "Every human being is going to die, it's just a matter of time. Anyway you can calm down, your obsession won't die because of this."

Kakashi and Asuma had to restrain the two kunoichi from beating him while he rummaged in his backpack. Naruto took out a scroll and opened it smearing a little blood on a seal. Suddenly a bottle with a light blue liquid and a syringe appeared out of nowhere.

"I'm not totally sure of what poison has been used and don't have the time to do a specific antidote, but I do have an idea of what substances have been used, and this will no doubt be effective. However it isn't exactly cheap, so I expect to have a reimburse once this mission will be over."

Ino and Sakura got angry at that "How can you speak about money in a situation like this?"

"Hey, it's not like I've asked him to pay me, but this medicine _is_ quite expansive, so the village will have to pay me back for it."

Kakashi decided to speak up to prevent a fight between the genins, "Don't worry Naruto, we'll mention this in our report. Now, is Sasuke all right? does he needs rest?"

"I'm fine!" the wannabe avenger shouted.

"Sasuke don't be reckless, in situations like this you have to listen to the medic-nin in charge of your treatment." the silver haired jounin reprimanded.

"He'll be all right, he shouldn't strain himself, but if we camp now and he sleeps all night tomorrow he'll be good as new and able to fight." Naruto answered putting his scroll back in his backpack.

Kakashi eyed him for a second before asking, "On a different note, are those storage scroll?"

"Yes, , Jiraiya kyoufu gave me them as birthday gifts."

The copy nin nodded before turning towards Auma, "Maybe it's better travel together from now on. Since we weren't able to stop them once they'll relay this info an attack will be inevitable and they'll know where to strike."

The other jounin nodded in acceptance and they began to camp, all the while Tazuna looked at the orange clad boy with new found interest. He had heard that medic-nin where extremely rare, not only that, but together with seal masters and bloodline limit wielders they were the most wanted. To think this kid was already good enough to treat a poisoned wound with so little effort was amazing in his eyes.

Meanwhile Kakashi resolved to have a word with his team.

"Come here guys, I want to speak about what happened. Firstly it's about you Sakura, and you Sasuke. This mission isn't a walk during which you can reflect on the meaning of life, so I'm expecting you to be more aware of your surroundings from now on. Another thing is that there _will be fights_, I understand you've frozen up Sakura, after all it's our first mission like this, but next time you'll have to act to help your team, ok? Sasuke, you fought well, but you shouldn't be so reckless, you won't always be able to count on a medic-nin. Shino you did good enough, well done. Now go and rest, all of you."

Sasuke didn't seem to take being reprimanded too kindly, but didn't say anything. Sakura on the other hand was visibly embarrassed, although grateful that her sensei spoke with them away from the others. She was also relieved by the fact that Kakashi-sensei didn't sound too disappointed but confident that they'll do better.

Unknown to her, he himself was glad that he managed to make her understand what he wanted without making her go into depression. After all he was new at this teaching thing, and he wanted to be for them what Minato-sensei had been and still was for him. It wouldn't have been good if they started to think he didn't have faith in them or disliked them.

After that they joined team 10 and Tazuna, Ino and Sakura began to argue over Sasuke, but in a quiet way because Asuma seemed to be in a bad mood that Kakashi assumed was caused by lack of smoke.

Shino was is silent self, Shikamaru was laying back near Naruto who was reading an orange book… 'Wait, that's one of the three I've brought with me! I'm starting to think that Rin was telling the truth when she told me that he left sensei in his boxer. Oh my god, if Tsunade-sama hears of this…' the ex-anbu captain paled.

"Naruto, can I have back my book? I don't think your mother would like it if you read them, they're for mature readers."

"I know Kakashi-sensei, don't worry. Jiraiya thought it was his duty as a godfather to have me read his pieces of literature, so in reality I've already read these. You know when I said he gave me those storage scroll? Well, let's just said he's been very lucky that kaa-san hadn't controlled if there was something sealed in them. The one time kyoufu tried to give me one directly my mom wasn't really happy."

The legendary copy nin discretely turned green under his mask. He had a suspicion that the fact the boy stole it wouldn't be a good enough excuse to save him from becoming grind meat. Thinking fast he saw only a way out of it, even if it pained him.

So he leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "You know what Naruto? You can read my books whenever you want BUT you have to swore me that even under torture you won't EVER say ANYONE that I let you."

"Not even my kaa-san?"

"_Especially_ not to your mother. Deal?"

"Deal."

The two shook hands sealing their secret agreement. Naruto then took his sleeping bag from one of his scrolls, much to the irritation of a certain dark haired genin of team 7 who wondered why he himself didn't have storage scrolls, and laid down. His companions however sweat dropped when they saw that he was squeezing a sponge while trying to sleep.

* * *

Far away from the Konoha teams' camp, in a hidden based, the demon brothers were reporting their fight to their leader. The man was sitting on a couch an holding a big sword, behind him was standing a boy with long dark brown hair an a anbu-like mask.

Just when their leader was about to say something, the door opened and a smaller man wearing a black business suitcame in, closely followed by twoarmed mercenaries.

"What's this that I've heard? It seems your two lapdog can't take care of an old drunk, Zabuza, I expected something better with how much I pay you." The little man said arrogantly.

Zabuza effortlessly lifted his huge zanbato and pointed it towards him, "Gato, it seems the target was guarded by more people than we thought, at least two teams from the leaf village. And one of his bodyguard is the famous copy-nin Hatake Kakashi. This will cost you three times what we initially agreed."

"What? That's ridic-" Gato's protests were interrupted by Zabuza pressing his sword farther towards him until it touched the little business man's neck, "Fine, but I'll give you the money only after you've completed the job."

The swordsman grinned "No problem."

Once Gato left the room the masked boy, who saw the thoughtful expression of his master, took a couple of steps further and spoke up, "Zabuza-sama?"

"We are outnumbered. I'll need you to do a thing for me, Haku."

* * *

The next day two genin teams, their senseis, and one bridge builder took a boat to reach the island that was Wave country. It was foggy, which increased the chances of not being spotted, and they weren't using the engine.

They reached the island that was Wave without troubles. The genin kept looking at the incomplete bridge Tazuna and his men were working at, which was visible from where their boat had left them.

Tazuna was pleased by their curious and awed expression, "I bet you've never seen a bridge like this, have you?"

Of course they nodded, actually none of them had even left the village before, with one exception in the form of Naruto who spoke up, "Actually I have. When I was younger my mother, my sis and I have travelled a lot, but I must admit this is one of the bigger ones I've seen."

Sakura fought the impulse to say him to stop trying to look cooler than Sasuke-kun, after all everyone in their village knew that what he told about travelling with his mother was true, and Tsunade-sama was one of the legendary sannin, so it wasn't recommended saying something against her. She didn't know that should anyone insult Tsunade, the slug sannin and her temper were no longer what would doom them.

Their peaceful walk was abruptly interrupted when Asuma threw a kunai towards one of the bushes on the side of the road. Kakashi hurriedly went to see what was there but he found only a little white rabbit that seemed to want to flee as far away from them as he could.

Shikamaru was the only one who saw Naruto left hand trembling slightly when he saw the rabbit, and as absurd as it may sound, the young Nara had the distinct impression that his friend was exercising a lot of self-control to not jump at the rabbit. 'And now that I think of it, why is its fur white? It's not winter yet' the pineapple boy thought.

"Everybody down!" Kakashi yelled.

Asuma pulled Tazuna to the ground while the genins ducked on their own except for Naruto. He looked curiously behind him at the object that was speedily coming closer and closer before jumping over it. When his feet touched the ground again the object, which was a huge zanbato, had embedded itself into a nearby tree, and on top of it stood a ninja with a slashed Kiri hitai-ate.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of useless genins, a former of the twelve ninja guardsmen, and Sharingan Kakashi." The missing-nin said, then he looked at Naruto "You know kid, you're really lucky you managed to jump over my sword, it would have been safer to get down."

The orange clad boy grinned, "Sure, but that way it was easier to give you a present."

The swordsman eyed him suspiciously before caching on what he was implying. Looking down, he saw an explosive note on his zanbato that was about to blast. In the little time he had, he used his speed to grab the sword and positioning it so that it wouldn't affect him.

Asuma murmured a "well done" before instructing his student to protect their client with the others while Kakashi addressed the missing-nin, "If it isn't the demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven swordsmen. I suppose you're working for Gato with the demon brothers?"

Shikamaru heard Naruto grumbling to himself, "Demon here, demon there, yadda yadda, what the hell?" He wasn't able to understand what else he was complaining about or why.

"Yeah, sorry, but the old man is mine." Zabuza said, "Meizu, Gouzu, I'll take Kakashi, you think about the other one."

"What about-"

"-the children who play ninja?" the two brothers asked.

Zabuza grinned evilly emitting his killing intent "We'll take care of them later, if they try anything kill them."

Sasuke began trembling in fear under the pressure, Shino's bugs buzzed angrily, Sakura and Ino were petrified, Shikamaru was sweating and Naruto…yawned loudly and rubbed his eye, temporally removing his goggles before putting them back without letting anyone see his eyes.

"Sorry. Hey Shika, knight in C3."

"I don't think now it's a good time for a game, Naruto." His team mate deadpanned.

"You won't do anything, Zabuza." Kakashi proclaimed lifting his hitai-ate and revealing his shraingan. Sasuke had a shocked expression at that, 'how can Kakashi-sensei have the sharingan?' he thought.

"I'm honoured to see that eye," Zabuza said sarcastically, "But it will be of no use. Kirigakure no jutsu" the demon of the hidden Mist called out. Suddenly a thick mist surrounded the entire area.

On the other side the last thing the genin saw was Asuma taking out his chakra-blades, then everything was covered from view.

* * *

Kakashi didn't like it one bit, Zabuza was a dangerous opponent and the thick mist was hindering the advantage the sharingan provided him. He was confident that Asuma could hold his ground against two chuunin, even if their teamwork was great and it's been years since they became missing-nin with that rank, years in which they had no doubt trained to improve their skills.

Ok, Kakashi was worried, not only about himself and Asuma, but for their students as well. If they left their positions, if he or Asuma were defeated or left an opening for their opponents to go past them…

There were so much things that could go wrong. The copy-nin wondered if his own sensei, Minato, had felt like this when he was teaching him, Rin, and Obito. 'No,' Kakashi thought 'I won't fail again, I swear Obito, I won't let another comrade die!'

Gathering his chakra he released it in a powerful pulse, partially dispersing the mist created by Zabuza's jutsu. However he was still unable to see him. A sudden thought hit him, the target was Tazuna and he had left an opening while standing in the mist.

"Time to die old man!" Zabuza said bringing his sword down among the genins. Before any of them could attempt anything, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and stopped the swordsman stabbing him with his kunai, only for him to crumble in a mass of water.

"Mizu bunshin." The copycat mumbled, just before being slashed himself revealing that it was a mizu bunshin of Kakashi.

"Copying jutsu with this mist, I'm impressed. But it's not good enough!" Zabuza said kicking him hard. Kakashi took the hit full force, he could have dodged, but not without endangering his and Asuma's students. The one eyed jounin was sent in a pool of water.

* * *

Asuma wasn't having a good time, the demon brothers had a huge advantage fighting two on one, their teamwork was excellent, and the leaf-nin was restricted in his movements if he wanted to protect his client and students.

Channelling wind natured chakra through his chakra blades, he waited for them to launch an attack. It didn't took them long, and with a coordinated manoeuvre they tried to slice his head off with their metal claws. Pity that they didn't know just how much sharper a weapon infused with wind chakra can be.

Blocking one strike with one hand, Asuma used his other to counterattack, and successfully destroyed the other's claws slicing it cleanly in half. His triumph was short-lived however when the missing-nin whose strike he blocked used the momentum to go past him, and run toward Tazuna.

Asuma didn't waste time in running after him, realizing only when it was too late that he had been tricked. The one who was nearing the bridge builder turned around and made to punch him, and even if the bearded jounin managed to dodge, he was hit by the other kick, which sent him in a the same pool where Kakashi landed.

Zabuza shushined on top of the water next to them and hastily made his handseals, "You fell for it, fools. Suirou no jutsu!"

The demon of the mist outstretched both his arms and two identical spheres of water appeared encasing the two leaf-nins.

'Shit,' Kakashi thought, 'we got careless'

"Guys," Asuma yelled, "take Tazuna and run, you have to get to his house!" 'And warn Kurenai of this mess.' He added in his mind.

Zabuza laughed, "do you really think they'll make it? Meizu, Gouzu, kill them all."

The two brothers exchanged a glance before charging. Shino was about to order his insects to attack, but Naruto stopped him grabbing his arm.

"Wait, make them come closer." He whispered tilting his head slightly towards Shikamaru, who was ready to use his kage mane no justu as soon as they were near enough.

Their plan however was jeopardized by Sasuke eagerness to fight. The Uchiha heir went to stop Meizu, who dodged him to let Gouzu punch the genin using the surprise element, while Meizu himself continued to run towards Tazuna and the others, just to stop abruptly when his and Shikamaru's extended shadow connected.

Part of Shino's bugs then proceeded to drain the immobilized enemy of his chakra, while the others were helping Sasuke.

Naruto grumbled to himself, "And there the _rookie of the year _demonstrated his greatness charging head on his opponent without any plan whatever. Fucking idiot doesn't even know the meaning of 'subtle'"

Deciding that he didn't care about the dark haired prick of team 7, Naruto made some handseals and murmured quietly "magen: sakasama."

Zabuza, who was looking at what his two underlings, suddenly felt his head spin, like someone had just turned his world **upside down**. He lost balance and inadvertently released Kakashi and Asuma from their water prisons.

Gouzu seeing this tripped Sasuke up and went to grab his brother before fleeing. Zabuza was about to retreat himself, when Kakashi blocked him appearing in front of him, while Asuma was standing behind him.

"It seems that our _children_ were able to force you and your lapdogs to retreat." Kakashi said.

"But unfortunately we can't let you leave" Asuma added.

The former member of the seven swordsmen of the Mist was in a very bad predicament, he wasn't only outnumbered, he was also already low on chakra from having sustained two water prisons. He'll have to get away from there quickly.

The two jounin and one missing-nin tensed, ready to launch their attacks, when suddenly two senbons came out of nowhere and embedded themselves in Zabuza's neck. He fell on the ground motionless.

Looking at the trees Asuma saw what seemed to be an hunter-nin from Kiri, while Kakashi confirmed that Zabuza was indeed dead.

"I thank you for your assistance, I've been hunting him for a while now." The hunter-nin sounded young, and judging by his height he had to be around their students' age.

The masked ninja then shushined beside the body of the demon of the Mist, an put one arm around his shoulders, "If you would excuse me now, I have a corpse to dispose of."

"Hey, buddy!" Naruto called.

Then, without further warning, he threw several kunai at Zabuza's body, just for the hunter nin to deflect them.

"Naruto, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Ino and Sakura screamed.

"Needles aren't usually used to kill opponents, they're the kind of weapons used by medic-nin to incapacitate their enemies. While it's true that someone with a good aim and adequate knowledge can kill with one well placed senbon, the angle of those in Zabuza's neck indicate that our friend has put him in a momentary death state. After all why wouldn't he dispose of the body here and now, or more importantly, why did he defended his _corpse_ from my kunais?"

"Your observation skills are really good, my compliments." The fake hunter-nin said, "but now it's really time for me to leave."

With an handseal Zabuza and his accomplice vanished.

"…"

"Well, shall we go?" Kakashi said covering his left sharingan eye and taking out his orange book, "lead the way Tazuna-san."

* * *

This was chapter 10, I'm not really sure on how the fights turned out to be, and without my beta I have to give you this like it is. The demon brothers are slightly stronger than in canon, but I consider what I've done 'making things a bit more realistic'; I mean, if they're damn chuunin there should be no way Sasugay could defeat them now, right?

Anyway, I'll need one or two OCs to even the numbers for the final battle. Let me know if you have some ideas or whatever.

Ah, almost forgot, here's a little omake.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OMAKE:

"Everybody down!" Kakashi yelled.

Asuma pulled Tazuna to the ground while the genins ducked on their own except for Naruto. He looked curiously behind him at the object that was speedily coming closer and closer.

Zabuza jumped for his position on the tree brenches to land where he knew his sword would embedded itself, but much to his surprise his precious zanbato wasn't there, resulting in him falling on his ass.

"Hey," the demon of the Mist yelled, "where the hell is my sword?"

Kakashi, Asuma, team 7, Shikamaru, Ino, and even Tazuna looked at Naruto who was hiding a little innocent storage scroll behind his back.

"What? Why are you looking at me?"


	11. Wave

I don't own Naruto.

More often than not I forget to write this, but you should already know that because: 1) I'm not so rich, 2) Jiraiya and Yugito died, 3) Anko hasn't made an appearance in shippuden yet.

_**IMPORTANT**_**:** I shamelessly admit that I take more inspiration from other fanfics than from the manga. However I'll always mention from where I'll take things and give credits, there are already too many damned plagiarists out there. That said, I plan to have some scenes that have been inspired from **Puppet master naruto**, I asked the original author (serpentsannin) and he basically said he didn't give a fuck. I suggest you to read it if you haven't yet, you can find it under Anko/naruto fics where it had been reposted.

Also this chapter isn't exactly how I would have liked it, but right now I want to move on with the story; I'll come back and fix this… mmmh… in the future.

Finally, a thank you to **Evilshroom**, who has become my beta since my old one kinda disappeared.

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* * *

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CHAPTER 11 - WAVE

A blond kunoichi was sitting just outside the door, looking at the trees that surrounded her house. The mission to Wave was getting on her nerves, she couldn't stand fooling around without anything to do.

She sighed and patted Ton-Ton on its head, felling worried, lonely, and pissed, for absolutely no reason except that she hadn't seen Naruto for three whole days now. It was the longest time they have spent apart since she and Shizune had found him.

And the fact that the process was completed just before he left only increased her uneasiness. True, he seemed normal, but the fact was that he was far from it; he's always been, but now more than ever. What will happen if one of the jounin senseis notices his affinities? Or his control over fire? What if they notice he's masking his chakra? And the village?

Tsunade sighed, she had too much free time now that Naruto was an active genin, and it was driving her crazy.

'Maybe Shizune is right, I should take the job of head of the hospital. I definitely can't stay here another second without losing my mind.'

With those thoughts the blond Sannin stood up and went toward the village.

* * *

"So, you basically had your asses handled to you by this Zabuza guy and his minions?"

"Kiba, mind your language." Kurenai reprimanded him.

The two teams lead by Kakashi and Asuma had arrived at Tazuna's home with their client, and regrouped with Kurenai and her team. They had also met Tsunami, the bridge builder's daughter, who was now busy trying to make room for all of them.

"Are we sure that Sasuke is alright?" the genjutsu mistress asked.

"Yeah, he's fine," Naruto answered absent-mindedly, "And I hope Kakashi-sensei will remember to report that I had to use a very expensive medicine."

Sakura glared hard at him, while Ino rolled her eyes. The blond kunoichi had realized that no matter what, her teammate could be incredibly stubborn when he wanted to, beside she was sure that he liked to piss people off every now and then.

"Hey, don't glare at me now, you have no idea how much that medicine costs. Hell, it's the most expensive thing I have, except for my kaa-san's necklace." The orange clad boy said.

The three jounin decided to ignore their students' bickering and focus on what they knew of their enemy.

"So we have a former swordsman of the Mist, two chuunin, and a fake hunter-nin skilled with senbon." Kurenai summarized.

"Yeah, the problem is that while we know that the first three are powerful, we know nothing on that boy. Beside, even if they probably aren't aware of your team, Kurenai, there's no way for us to know if Zabuza or Gato will seek help from other missing-nins." Asuma reasoned.

"In any case, one thing is sure: we need to train our students. I'd say to start with a bit of chakra control, then we can take turns: I'll take care of ninjutsu, Kurenai, you will teach them the basic of genjutsu, and you, Asuma, will supervise their taijutsu. That way, while one of us train them the others can look after Tazuna and his family," Kakashi said, demonstrating his abilities as squad leader gained serving as an ANBU captain.

Asuma was pleased because, as much as he liked his pupils, sometimes they simply threatened his sanity, and now he could take a small break. Kurenai was inwardly cheering at the chance to teach someone about her art, especially Naruto who had shown aptitude at it. Kakashi simply wanted the genins to socialize and grow strong.

"It's useless, there's no way you can win against Gato's men. You're all going to die." The Konoha ninjas turned to look at who spoke and saw a little boy with dark hair and eyes, wearing a hat.

"Hey, what did you say, brat?" Kiba yelled. Despite having heard him said something like that more than once since his team had arrived a couple of days before, the dog boy still got riled up with the kid.

"P-please Kiba, c-calm down." Hinata stuttered.

"Your anger is unjustified Kiba-san, his statement is just the result of a pessimistic view and ignorance. This Gato character seems to have gained quite the influence over Wave, and has crushed the morale of these people." Shino spoke in a calm and analytical tone.

The little boy narrowed his eyes at the bug user before turning and leaving the room.

"Inari!" Tsunami looked at his retreating form sadly.

Naruto looked up at her "What's up with your little brother?"

The dark haired woman blushed slightly at the question, then smiled at the young genin "Inari, like most people, has lost hope, please don't hold it against him. And he isn't my brother, he's my son."

The orange clad boy tilted his head before chuckling sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "Oops, sorry, my bad. May I apologize helping you with dinner?"

"No, don't worry, there's no need, really"

"I insist." Naruto gave her a kind smile, and she finally agreed.

Kakashi looked at the two of them who went to the kitchen. The copycat leaned towards Asuma and whispered "Is it me or your student was successfully flirting with a woman more than twice his age?"

Kurenai frowned slightly, that could be a problem for Hinata. The point was figuring out if Naruto was a womanizer, was just trying to be gentle and didn't realize that he was indeed flirting, or liked older women. Thinking the last was a little blow to her pride seeing how he never showed any interest in her, but maybe it was because he knew she was already dating someone?

But the point wasn't that, what the genjutsu mistress had to do was try to help Hinata with her crush.

* * *

Tsunade blinked. She had just come to the hospital and entered Shizune's office and found something… well, not totally unexpected, but she didn't think she'd see this here and now.

"What kind of medical exam is that, exactly?" The legendary medic asked out loud.

"Tsu-Tsunade-sama! This isn't… We were just… What are you doing here?" Shizune sputtered blushing furiously.

Minato was just as red and embarrassed as she was, after all he had just been caught making out with a medic in her office while the both of them were supposed to be working. Inwardly he couldn't decide if this was worse than when he was left without his pants or not. Seeing Tsunade's evil smirk most probably it was.

The Fourth Hokage cleared his throat before speaking, "S-so, it's not often that you come in town, Tsunade. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Well, I wanted to ask if the hospital had a job for me, but I can back later if you two are busy."

Minato chuckled nervously, "No no no. Ehm… You want to work at the hospital? That's great! I'll go to take the pap-" he stopped with an horrified expression.

The two medic-nins looked at him curiously.

"Minato-kun?" Shizune grabbed his shoulder and shook him gently.

"More paperwork. Why did I take this job? I thought I would fight to protect Konoha, lead my village and all that stuff, instead I find myself drowning under tons of documents. A Kage's title is just the most blatant example of deception between ninjas."

Tsunade scoffed impatiently, "Oh, come on, take it like a man."

She grabbed him by his vest and dragged him to take the papers necessary. However, as soon as they were out of the room and Shizune couldn't hear them, Tsunade looked him in the eyes seriously.

"I'll warn you just once, Minato, Shizune is my only apprentice and in time I came to care for her like for a daughter or a sister. If you break her heart, I'll break everything in your little body in the most painful way possible."

The yellow flash replied just as seriously, "I won't." then with a more light hearted expression he added, "You know, Naruto said something similar, he's growing to be just like you, it's scary."

The female sannin smiled happily at that.

* * *

"Atchoo"

"Bless you"

"Thanks Kurenai-sensei." Naruto answered.

The rookie 9 and their sensei were having dinner with Tazuna's family, and even if they were a bit cramped in the little room, no one really minded. Tsunami had been surprised when it turned out that Naruto was quite good at cooking, and asked him about it.

"So Naruto-kun, who taught you to cook? Was it your mother?"

"No, she isn't all that skilled in the kitchen. I learned from my nee-chan, she said that it was like making a medicine: take the ingredients in the right doses, and follow the procedure. Which just makes me wonder why my mom can't cook an egg if her life depended on it." he added as an afterthought.

When dinner was over the genins started have a small talk comparing this mission with their previous ones. Everyone inched away from Naruto when he said he liked the D-ranks and he found them relaxing, his weirdness beginning to unnerve them, and the sponge he was clutching didn't help.

"What's up with that sponge?" Kiba asked bluntly at him.

"Uh? What's up with it?" the boy repeated tilting his head.

Shikamaru felt a chill down his spine, he wasn't going to endure another one of his friend's rant, "Sensei, can I go to train?"

The other rookie stared at him. Kurenai and Kakashi looked between him and Asuma. The young Sarutobi himself was felling an incoming headache and decided to stop it then and there, "Kiba, sponges are great and, please, let's leave it at that."

"Hey, someone want to play poker?"

The jounin looked at Naruto and then at each other. It seemed that the young Senju had taken after his adoptive mother and her gambling addiction.

"Sure, why not" Kakashi agreed, 'Now I'll revenge my precious Icha Icha.'

Asuma decided to play as well, as did Shino, Kiba, and Sasuke. The others chose to watch them, while Kurenai glared at her colleagues who were undoubtedly trying to take advantage of the legendary sucker's son purpose of a friendly game.

It was a shame for them that the boy didn't have Tsunade's bad luck, quite the contrary in fact, as two straight flushes and a full house in the first five hands testified. While the orange clad boy was winning hand after hand, Kiba was the first to lose his cool.

"Argh! You're cheating, I know you are!"

"No, I'm not. Firstly, one of our senseis would have noticed, and secondly I don't need to."

"You, Shino, and Kakashi-sensei are winning just because you have an advantage, I would have a poker-face too with my face half hidden."

"That reminds me…" Naruto said looking at the Aburame, "it's been a while that I wanted to ask you this: why do you always wear sunglasses? I've never seen you take them off."

"Hn, you're one to talk, you never take off your goggles either." Sasuke pointed out.

"Well, I keep them out of habit. When I was traveling with kaa-san and nee-chan they had me wearing them because my eyes tended to unsettle people, but now that we are in Konoha there isn't really a reason. I mean, in a ninja village there are plenty of weirder things."

"Then why don't you take them off?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Ok."

The pink haired girl and Ino were leaning forward, while Hinata sported a light blush. Shino was as stoical as always, while Sasuke and Kiba tried to hide their interest. Chouji and Shikamaru on the other hand had already seen his eyes and chose to look at their sensei's and fellow genin's reaction.

Naruto took off his goggles and let them hanging at his neck, then slowly lifted his head to face the others. Without half of his face hidden his whisker marks and his features were more visible. Locks of his wild orange hair fell down his face, stopping just barely before covering his eyes, red-slitted eyes that seemed to wield much more knowledge and power than what any of them thought possible, eyes that almost glowed in their intensity.

All in all he looked more than handsome, as Hinata's fainting proved. Ino and Sakura were trying to come up with reasons of why Sasuke was cooler, but they were having problems and getting a little red. Kiba was taken aback by how fierce his visage looked, not to say that his instinct were telling him that Naruto was far more than he seemed. Shino raised an eyebrow while his bugs were buzzing loudly. Sasuke felt threatened and was inwardly seething, 'I don't know why I'm worrying, but once I'll awaken my Sharingan I'll show you.'

Tazuna and Tsunami gasped, those eyes were certainly unsettling, and they could understand why he covered them, even if Tsunami thought he definitely looked hot.

The jounin senseis managed to control their reactions and, although surprised, didn't show it. The only visible change was that Kakashi didn't looked as lazy, but was staring intently at Naruto's eyes. Inwardly he was wondering if they were natural or some sort of bloodline limit. Unknown to everyone Kurenai was mentally berating herself for feeling attracted to this _child_, not only because she was dating Asuma, but also because she was supposed to help Hinata win his heart, not fantasizing about how he would look with a couple more years and without his shirt- 'Bad Kurenai, bad.'

Naruto smiled mischievously and tilted his head to the side, his locks almost hiding the amused glint in his eyes, "Is there anything else I can do for you? However, I'd ask not to make me take off anything else…"

Hinata, who was regaining her senses, fainted again. Kurenai hide her irritation at both the red-eyed boy and her colleagues, who were giggling, and decided to call it a night. She sent the genins to bed and picked up Hinata, after all if they were to train the day after they needed the rest.

* * *

In one of Gato's hidden base in Wave country, another ninja, a missing-nin from Kiri, was sulking while lying in his bed. Zabuza was left bedridden after being put in the false death state, and now he'd need at least a week before regaining his strength.

But that was fine, he could wait, and once the week was over, he'll attack again, and this time he'll kill them all. Haku had done his task and by that time he'll also have the back up from an old friend.

His thoughts were interrupted when Gato came in, followed by his pathetic bodyguards. If the little prick weren't so damned rich he would have killed him long ago. Maybe he'll do that anyway once he was paid.

"It looks like the Mist ninjas are pretty pathetic, you and your men failed again. Maybe I should have hired Konoha ninjas from the beginning."

Haku, who was sitting beside Zabuza's bed, remained silent and still, but his eyes were following Gato's and his bodyguards' every move.

The demon of the Mist decided to speak, "The old man hired more ninja than what you said he could pay for. My men spied him and found out that there are three teams, but don't worry, I already contacted an old friend of mine to even the numbers, and he'll work for free."

Gato grinned hearing this, but he quickly frowned at Zabuza's next words.

"I, however, would like to have a reimbursement for the trouble that _your _wrong info have caused."

"What? You're lucky I haven't had you killed yet." The businessman spat out taking a step toward his bed.

Haku didn't need any other sign to spring into action, and grabbed Gato's arm, squeezing it hard enough to break it. The two samurai unsheathed their swords but stopped when they found their very swords held at their neck by the dark haired boy. They didn't even see him move.

"Now you've pissed me off." Haku said darkly.

Gato eyed him fearfully and turned toward Zabuza, "You have one more chance, only one. If you fail again don't come back."

With that said he rushed out the room, his bodyguards behind him.

"That was unnecessary, Haku." The swordsman told him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stand him. And your old friend is tiresome to deal with."

The demon of the Mist chuckled, 'tiresome' wasn't the word he would have used to describe him, 'insane' was more fitting.

* * *

The following morning found nine genin in the woods with their senseis. The first part of their training was chakra control, and Kakashi was explaining them the tree climbing exercise. After he finished Kurenai spoke to the two genins she suspected already knew the exercise.

"Hinata, seeing how your clan's juuken is based on chakra control I assume you have already mastered this?" the girl nodded shyly to confirm her words.

The genjutsu mistress then turned her attention to the other one. "And since you know both medical jutsu and genjutsu, you should have trained your control too, right Naruto?"

"Mh-hm" Naruto hummed, "my mom made me learn this when I was three, she said that if I could walk on the walls and the ceiling I could paint them."

The jounins blinked. It was a really original approach, but if he was so young then Tsunade needed to make it sound like a game. Probably she managed to train him for years without him realizing it.

* * *

AN: This isn't what I wanted, I wanted to make one big chapter with everything that happened before the final fight, but it seems I don't find time nor inspiration.

I lost a couple of days reading fics that made me look at NaruSaku with new respect (no, I won't write it for now), then I realized just how much time passed since my last update and decided that I'd split this chapter in two, so that you have something to read.

One day I'll rewrite this and all the previous chapters, but for now I want to go on with the story.


	12. Training and meeting

I don't own Naruto

Sorry for the long wait. Unfortunately with September my free time is being drastically reduced, so from now on the updates will be slower. They won't stop though. In any case feel free to pm me to ask if you want.

Really, really, really sorry for the shortness of it, keep in mind this is the second half of the previous chapter.

Another matter: I've been asked if this will evolve in an harem fic. Honestly, I've been thinking about it, and there were good points for both an harem or keeping it stictly AnkoNaru. I _think_ I've made a decision, but I won't write it here and now. First I may change my mind, second it would ruin the surprise.

I thank everyone who reviewed, pointed out things that inspired me, and helped me improve. Now…

* * *

**CHAPTER 12 – TRAINING AND MEETING**

Kakashi sighed. He didn't know what to make of his charges' attempt at tree climbing. He was, however, really happy when Naruto and Hinata decided to stay and help their comrades for a while before Kurenai took them to teach the girl water walking, and trying to find something for the boy as well.

From what Rin had told him and what Naruto himself reported, it seemed that Tsunade had worked on his control like a possessed woman. It was good in a way, but Kakashi couldn't understand why the sannin had been so obsessed on him learning that so soon and so well. Must be a medic kunoichi thing.

Despite that, however, the young Senju worried him. The way he acted always so relaxed made him think that maybe he didn't realize how dangerous this mission was. It was strange; he could tell that Naruto wasn't arrogant, and the young genin had never said anything about being different or stronger then the others (unlike one of his students… he'll have to beat that attitude out of Sasuke one of these days), but the way he walked, spoke, seated, hell, even the way he simply breathed screamed to the whole word that he didn't felt threatened in the slightest.

The curious thing was that despite that Kakashi often caught that eyesore of an orange mass behaving in the most childish way he had ever seen. And then there was his fixation with sponges. He overheard him mumbling during lunch about how much of a big one he'd need to absorb the whole ocean, or how many little ones. It was starting to creep him out.

As for the ten other rookies, they proved to be a handful. Sasuke in particular seemed unreasonably pissed at both Hinata and Naruto for knowing something he didn't, and at Kiba who was learning faster than him. Granted, even Sakura was doing better than him, but that was because of her little chakra reserves, and she wasn't rubbing it in his face.

Instead the young Inuzuka, whose more animalistic nature Kakashi suspected helped him in the exercise, snorted every time Sasuke fell from his tree. This infuriated the young Uchiha, sending his control out of the window and worsening his bad mood. And was starting to give him an headache.

"What's the problem, pretty boy? The rookie of the year can't keep up now?" Kiba mocked. He was a foot or two above Sasuke, who glared at him murderously.

"Shut up dog-breath! Sasuke-kun is way better than you!" Sakura yelled from the top of her tree.

"Then why can't he go higher than me? Let's face it, he could have been great at school, but in the real word I'm the alpha."

"Technically, Kiba-san, Sakura-san has done better than all of us. And both Hinata-san and Naruto-san had already mastered this exercise."

Kiba pointedly ignored Shino's words, content to simply have bested Sasuke. Ino, however, decided to question Shikamaru about it.

"Hey Shika, why didn't Naruto tell us he could do this?"

"So troublesome. Maybe you never asked him?"

Ino's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "Wait, you knew it?"

Chouji joined their conversation answering in his place, "He told us that Tsunade-sama trained him in chakra control and medical theory, but he never went into details."

Before Ino could reply Kakashi's voice interrupted them, "Less talk, more practice. We don't have time for that.

While the genins went back to their exercise, the copy-nin noticed the contempt in Sasuke's eyes. 'Could he really be so selfish to despise whoever knows something he doesn't?'

Kakashi sighed again; he had really hoped they could learn this in a day or two, especially after Hinata and Naruto gave them some pointers, but so far only Sakura seemed likely to do it in that time while, from the look of it, the others will took a little more.

In any case Kurenai, Asuma and he won't be able to teach them anything new. There simply wasn't the time for them to learn new skill good enough to use them effectively in the field. He only hoped that their enemy didn't find a powerful ally in the meantime.

* * *

On a shore not too far away from Kakashi and his charges, Kurenai found herself sighing, not unlike her colleague. It wasn't the fact that she had definitely nothing to teach Naruto on chakra control, on the contrary, she saw that as a great opportunity to start on genjutsu earlier.

The problem wasn't even the very red-faced and very passed out girl in front of her. Well, that was a problem, but what had her sighing was the boy who caused that. An orange haired red eyed boy who, upon seeing the ocean, shamelessly stripped down naked in front of both her and Hinata before diving in the water.

"Naruto, was taking off your boxers really necessary? Couldn't you have just a bit more decency?"

"But Kurenai-sensei I'm just a boy and I know you're dating Asuma-sensei, and Hinata-san… well, with her eyes it's not like I've shown something she couldn't already see."

The genjutsu mistress pinched the bridge of her nose. The fact that she had been affected wasn't something she'd say anytime soon or ever. Although, she had to admit that as time went by she felt less and less attracted to him and was coming to see him as the child he was, as if he was slowly closing a tab that poured out sex-appeal.

Kurenai blinked. 'Where did that come from? Never mind, let's focus on the problem.'

"Naruto, you just don't strip down in front other people like that, especially in front of a girl. And even if Hinata could see through clothes, that doesn't mean she does it. I really shouldn't have to say you this, didn't your mother ever spoke with you about this?"

"Maybe…" Naruto muttered sinking into the water.

Kurenai shook her head and turned her attention to her passed out student. Unknown to her However, Naruto was thinking about what she had just said. Those words reminded him of a talk his kaa-san had with him long ago.

"_Having _the power_ to do something doesn't mean you have _the right_ to do so. People should try to do the right thing, not everything they could just because."_

"_How do I know what's the right thing to do?" Asked a curious Naruto._

_Tsunade smiled at her little boy, "It's simple, you…"_

"NARUTO!"

The red-eyed boy gave a start. "What? What happened?"

Kurenai stared at him with an irritated look, while the now conscious Hinata was working on the water walking with a very red face.

"You were spacing out. Now come here, get dressed, and let's see what we can find for you to work on," the genjutsu mistress ordered.

* * *

Zabuza was sitting on his bed, looking at man in front of him. He somewhat regretted that Haku wasn't there, out of all the seven swordsman of the Mist, the one who was staring back at him was perhaps the most unpredictable one.

Although other people said the same about him after the whole final test of the academy fiasco.

"I don't like you. I can't stand you, you and Kisame have always pissed me off."

Zabuza snorted, "Same here, Raiga. But what I propose to you is a just a little easy job, one that will let you organize all the funerals you want afterwards."

The long-haired swordsman pondered the offer for a while. He didn't like Zabuza, he had half a mind to kill him now that he was weak and organize a nice funeral for him. On the other hand, if his so-called ex-comrade was speaking the truth and he followed him, he could make many others soon enough.

"What are we doing, Raiga?" a voice that seemed to come from his backpack asked.

"We'll stick with you Zabuza, but just this one time." That said, the green haired shinobi turned around and left the room.

As soon as the door closed behind him Meizu and Gozu voiced their own question.

"Zabuza-sama, can we really…" "…trust him?"

The demon of the Mist closed his eyes and relaxed, "Don't worry, for now he won't do anything, and once I'm back at full power he'll be no match for me. Now be quiet, I need to rest."

In his mind, however, his thoughts were along these lines, 'He went from being an insane bastard with an obsession for funerals, to being an insane bastard that speaks with his backpack and has an obsession for funerals. Great. I wonder who or what the hell could be there.'

* * *

Haku was wandering in the woods looking for medicinal herbs for Zabuza. His current attire was that of a civilian except for the hidden needles in his sleeves. With the basket under his arm he must have looked like someone who was going to a picnic.

He was walking immersed in his thoughts when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes- something bright orange in the middle of a clearing. He went to look closer and recognized one of the genin hired by the old bridge builder.

'Ugh, my eyes hurt. Seriously, though, I spotted him when I was almost a mile away! Bright orange isn't exactly stealthy in a forest.'

Haku felt conflicted on what to do, on one hand this boy was an enemy and should be eliminated, but on the other hand they weren't fighting right now, and he really didn't want to kill him, especially in his sleep. So he decided to wake him and try to gain some info talking with him.

Naruto felt the person who had approached him in his sleep shake his shoulder and put on his goggles before opening his eyes.

"You shouldn't sleep out here, you'll catch a cold." A boy with long brown hair and wearing a pink kimono (I can't remember, what's Haku wearing?) said.

"Maa, you didn't have to worry about me, I'm used to it and I don't catch colds." Naruto waved him off.

"Oh, I didn't see your hitai-ate, so you must be a ninja. What were you doing in the forest?" Haku asked hoping to know more about what the Konoha ninja were planning.

"Relaxing, seeing the sights, training, napping, a little of everything. And you? Do you always wander in search of people sleeping outside?" Naruto asked. However, giving him a better look, he noticed the basket he was carrying or, more specifically, what was in it.

"Hey, these are medical herbs, are you collecting them? Do you need some help?"

Haku smiled at boy, to recognize those plants for what they were so fast he must have good eyes.

"Yes, thank you. And I really didn't mean to disturb you, I simply saw something bright orange and got curious. You know, I thought ninja were supposed to be stealthy…"

"And I thought boys didn't dress like girls, it gives people strange ideas." Naruto replied grinning, "And I can be stealthy if I want, in fact my clothes are perfect for camouflage."

"Really?" Haku looked at him sceptically, but Naruto nodded firmly.

"Yeah, in fact I bet you didn't notice my hair."

The Hyouton user sweat-dropped at his logic. Of course, since the boy's hair were just a shade of orange darker than his clothes, they went unnoticed when you looked at him. But the fact was that it was astonishing easy to spot him. Haku couldn't believe this was the same boy that helped freeing the Konoha jounin with a subtle genjutsu. Bright orange and subtle simply shouldn't be able to coexist.

Deciding to change topic as to not have a massive headache, Haku asked a question that would help him understand what kind of person he would be up against.

"You seem to know a lot on herbs for a ninja, I was under the impression that your job request a different set of skill."

"Usually it's like that, but I'm more of a defensive fighter than an attacker one. That's the right thing…" Naruto answered slowly, trailing off at the end while memories invaded his mind.

"_How do I know what's the right thing to do?" asked a curious Naruto._

_Tsunade smiled at her little boy, "It's simple, you must try to preserve life. Every moron, given the right condition, could kill or hurt others. However, very few can cure or save a life. Life it's a great gift, but a very fragile one too."_

"_But don't ninjas kill?"_

_The Sannin sighed. "Unfortunately, there are times in which to protect what we love we must make a little bad to avoid a bigger one. Don't worry, one day you'll understand."_

"So you fight to protect. I suppose you have a precious person?"

Naruto froze at those words and turned warily to eye Haku. He studied him for a bit before going back at collecting herbs.

"I'm sorry Haku-san, I'm really flattered but I don't swing that way."

Haku sputtered. Now that he thought about it, his question did sound wrong.

"That's not what I was saying, I-"

"Relax Haku-san," the Konoha genin interrupted him with a smile, "I'm not judging you or anything, on the contrary, if you want there's a comrade of mine that might be interested."

Haku was beginning to feel aggravated, his hand twitched towards his hidden senbons.

"Anyway, here, this is for you."

Zabuza's accomplice took the cloth Naruto had given him and looked at it skeptically. "A red hood?"

Naruto nodded, "Wear it the next time you wander in the woods with a basket for your 'precious person' under your arm. But remember, don't trust anything with big eyes, big ears, and a big mouth. Now I must go, my breakfast sense is tickling. It's been a pleasure to know you, I hope you'll find your special boy in the future. Bye!"

Haku stared at the retreating form of the orange clad boy. The encounter had really weirded him out, Naruto didn't struck him as the sanest person out there. 'Then again, I'm working with Raiga who is obsessed over funerals and speaks with someone he carries in his backpack. Maybe this is what Zabuza-sama meant when he said that all ninjas have their thing.'

Standing up to make his way back to Gato's hidden base, he suddenly became aware of something missing from the inside of his sleeves. Reaching with a hand, his eyes widened while his mind tried to elaborate what this meant

* * *

In Konoha, a blond hokage was looking at a number of papers on his desk with a frown. They were letters from the other ninja villages, allied and not, with an approximate esteem of the number of genin who will take part in the next chuunin exam, that will be held in the leaf village in a month.

Iwa sent a message saying it hadn't genin ready. Right, they weren't scared shitless of him, they just weren't ready.

Kumo, on the other hand, will send some chuunin hopefuls. Minato's eyes narrowed, his spies had warned him against Cloud desire to obtain one of their bloodline, the Byakuugan in particular. This could be a problem, but the only way to refuse their participation would be if they were at war.

Suna had sent a message informing him that the Kazekage's children would take part on the exam.

And a newly formed village, Otogakure, was asking permission to join the competion for the first time.

Thankfully none of the other villages had anything out of the ordinary. Signing the last document, Minato stood and stretched his back. Looking at the clock, a smile appeared on his face thinking about his lunch with Shizune. He really hoped their relationship would continue to go so well, and not only because Tsunade and little Naruto will kill him otherwise.

Shizune was a great kunoichi, but also a fantastic person, beautiful and kind. The fact that she choose to be a healer instead of a front line fighter reflected a kindness and desire to help others that he really liked. Now, if he only managed to pick her up at the hospital without being seen by Tsunade…

And speaking of the slug sannin, who knows if her son's team will enter the chuunin exam? it was unusual for rookies, but the damiyo would be doubtlessly interested in both him and Sasuke, the last Uchiha. And the two boys had already shown a great deal of talent.

In the end, however, the choice was up to their sensei.

* * *

"Naruto! Where have you been?" Ino yelled at him.

The boy smiled, twirling a senbon in his fingers, "Sorry, I was having a walk in the forest when I met a trap."

Sakura looked at him oddly, "You mean you fell into a trap?"

"God, no! I didn't fall for it; I meant exactly what I said. Anyway, can I have a cookie?"

Tsunami chuckled at him before putting a trail in front of him. Now that Naruto kept his goggles hanging around his neck while in the house, the dark haired woman was getting used to his slitted red eyes, and despite having no problem admitting he was quite good looking, she now found him cute in a more motherly way. Beside he seemed always cheerful and curious about everything, that she couldn't help but to grow a soft spot for him.

Naruto sat down taking a cookie. Looking around he saw that Chouji was next to him munching his own cookie, Sasuke was busy brooding and ignoring Ino and Sakura, Akamaru and Kiba were pestering the senseis who were talking with each other, and Hinata seemed to try to hide herself.

He was re-evaluating her lately. Although her shyness was still a bit too big for the two of them to have a proper conversation, her kindness reminded him of Shizune. He'll have to try and be friends with her. And Shino too, whoever could play shogi decently had his interest. But for now, since he was playing it with Shikamaru…

'Well, I need at least three other people to play poker, so…' thinking that Naruto formed a single handseal and whispered a technique, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu"

Suddenly three exact replicas of the orange haired boy appeared out of nowhere, while the original gave them five cards each.

Kiba, who was getting tired of trying to get the jounins agree with his ideas, looked at him in wonder.

"Hey, what are you trying to do? Bunshin aren't real, you can't play with them, dumbass."

"That's why I made _Kage Bunshin_. They're real, in fact they're holding their cards, see?"

Kakashi observed the exchange with interest. Being an expert of ninjutsu, had already recognized the technique, and was curious about how the genin knew it, since it was a forbidden technique. Furthermore, the fact that he _could_ use it meant that his chakra reserves must be pretty large for his age, but despite that his control was top notch thanks to Tsunade's training.

"Kage Bunshin? I've never heard of that jutsu, what is it Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, forgetting for a second about her Sasuke-kun, whose eyes narrowed while watching the orange clad boy.

"The concept behind it is similar to the simple Bunshin you know, but unlike that the copies are real and can inflict damage to an enemy or being used as scout. However the Kage Bunshin requires great amounts of chakra, so much that it's listed as a forbidden technique available only to jounin. I'm quite curious, how did you learn it Naruto?"

"A moron was walking around like a headless chicken with that big scroll of bad-assery, I took it and had a look inside. Hey, straight flush!"

"Same."

"Me too."

"Idem."

The four Naruto looked at each other and at their cards, happily ignoring the glare from Sasuke. He just hoped he won't threw another tantrum like the night before when the Uchiha learned that he had began training in genjutsu with Kurenai instead of working on chakra control. Naruto had decided to sleep outside just to avoid his loud whining.

Was it so hard to understand that when someone is better than you at something you have to catch up before doing the same training? But noooo, the great Uchiha wanted the same training at once, never mind that without control he'd probably destroy his own mind.

'Although it would be interesting to see that happen… Maybe I could even try and see if I can restore it afterwards. Or rebuild him into a kind-hearted and altruist spirit. Or, making him into a bat-shit crazy guy who argue with himself about his treasure. But I think this is under the _even-if-it-sounds-funny-do-not-do-it_ category. Sigh.'

Munching his cookie quietly, Naruto noticed out of the corner of his eyes another person glaring; not only at him, but at all the rookie genin. Inari, Tsunami's son, seemed to be angry at them for both being there and opposing Gato who was invincible and will crush them. Yeah, right.

Naruto didn't know what to think of the boy. Tazuna had told them all about Kaiza's fate, but the adopted Senju just didn't know. A father was a foreign concept for him, but if it's the same as a mother…

Naruto clenched his fists before taking a deep breath. 'I have to stay calm. Probably tomorrow Zabuza will attack, and if Gato is what I think he is, he'll try to take advantage of our fight to kill whoever survives. He'll have another thing coming.'

* * *

Done. Again sorry for the delay and the shortness. Next chapter will be the fight for the bridge.


	13. Battle

I don't own Naruto.

I'm happy. I changed a couple of things, as you already knew if you read what I put here before. (The outline of how things went when Anko graduated, since it didn't work with what I wanted to write, I erased it.)

On another note, in my profile under 'hobbies', you'll find a link to a game based off Naruto. It's great to kill time and have fun! I want to say to those who already joined and play that I'm really happy, thank you helping our village.^^

Thanks to all my reviewers too, and sorry if some answers weren't satisfactory.

Finally, as some of you asked I've put an outline (the most vague one you'll ever read) of what the other fanfic I'm thinking of is about. Let me know if you want me to start to work on it now or if you'd rather me focus on this first, there's a poll in my profile.

Now…

* * *

**CHAPTER 13 ****– BATTLE**

Naruto sat up with a yawn and stretched. It had been roughly a week and a half since their encounter with Zabuza, and he'd be back any time now. Because of that they had changed their routine two days ago: instead of training together all the day, one team would always be with Tazuna, one would stay with his family, and the last one would train in a place that was halfway between the two ready to help either one if need be.

Today it was team Kakashi turn to guard Tazuna and team Kurenai turn to train. That left Naruto and his teammates and sensei at home with Tsunami and Inari. He liked it because it meant that he could oversleep.

Rubbing his eyes, Naruto slowly made his way downstairs and into the kitchen to eat breakfast.

"Naruto, Kurenai has just sent a message. Kakashi and his team are under attack and need support. I, Shikamaru and Ino are going to help; you stay here and guard Tsunami and Inari."

Before the boy could say anything or even raise his head to look at his sensei, he and his teammates were already gone. Naruto blinked, letting Asuma's words sink in. After a couple of seconds of utter silence, he scratched his head, shrugged, and sat down to eat breakfast.

Tsunami stared. Inari glared fiercely, shaking in anger. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

Naruto looked at him with his head tilted to the side, "Breakfast?"

The dark haired boy seemed ready to jump on him and Naruto had no idea why. He still couldn't understand the way some people thought. Deciding that he could try to figure the boy out later, Naruto finished to eat and went back upstairs to take off his pajamas and get some clothes. Both the other genins and jounin senseis had looked at him strangely when he had changed into it before going to sleep, but he had paid them no mind.

Naruto stifled another yawn and was putting on his orange jacket when there was a crash downstairs. He was really starting to think that he shouldn't have got up this morning.

As he came into the kitchen, what he saw was Inari leaning on a wall crying, and two… thugs… with swords holding Tsunami, who was yelling them to leave her son alone.

Naruto felt a pang of irritation, he liked Tsunami, she had that aura around her that he associated to all those women who had children, she was always kind to him in a motherly way, and those two simply looked too smug and arrogant for their own good. They reminded him of those thieves that attacked his mother and sister years ago. Taking a deep breath he tried to solve the situation diplomatically.

"I suppose you two are Gato's…_employees._ I'd really appreciate if you could let Tsunami-san go and leave peacefully, so that no one gets hurt."

Zouri pulled Tsunami towards himself and wrapped his left arm around her waist pressing his body against her back, "Don't make me laugh kid, who do you think you are, hm?"

The dark haired woman paled as she felt him subtly rubbing his crotch against her butt, fearing what she knew he and his comrade would do to her if they managed to bring her to one of Gato's places. Naruto noticed the gesture too, and that, together with the tears he saw forming in Tsunami's eyes, made his expression darken.

"I asked that kindly, but judging from your behavior, you seem to be what my mother calls 'a lost cause'. As such I'm afraid I'll have to use force." Naruto said seriously.

"Oh, really? Well, then it's a pity your mommy isn't here herself, I definitely wouldn't have mind teaching her a lesson too." Waraji mocked while the other mercenary chuckled.

"I see." Naruto said, and for some reason his cold tone sent a chill down everybody's spine, "After that you can't really despise me if I won't show you any mercy."

As soon as he finished talking both of Gato's men were sent flying ten feet away with their noses broken. Naruto, who stood in the place they occupied previously, looked at Tsunami and asked her if she was ok. At her nod Naruto turned back to face the two mercenaries, but not before giving the woman a simple instruction.

"Tsunami-san, take Inari and go inside your house. Also, I'd recommend not to allow him to look outside, nor to do so yourself, until I call you."

She didn't know what it was, but something in his voice made her do what he said without a question.

Naruto waited until she and her son were inside their house, not minding that Gato's men stood back up in the meanwhile. Once the two he protected were no more in the open, however, he took off his goggles and stared at the two mercenaries in the eyes.

Zouri, his sword drawn, was yelling at him angrily, "You little bastard, now I'll…"

His voice died out as he began trembling so much that his sword fell on the ground while he himself fell on his knees. Breathing had become harder. Sweat formed all over his body. He tried to grab his sword from the ground but his hands were simply trembling too much.

Waraji, who had fallen on his butt, was in a similar condition. But whereas his comrade was pathetically and desperately trying to get a hold of his weapon, he was completely paralyzed. And, unlike his comrade, he was staring back at the one responsible. He was staring back at two glowing red slitted eyes in which he could see his own death.

Naruto slowly walked towards them, his face void of any emotion. When he finally reached the two he stopped and stood in between them. Zouri was still trying to grab his sword while whimpering, while Waraji had pissed his pants and looked quite green.

"Yomi kasai."

Red and black flames sprouted out of nowhere around the two mercenaries, engulfing and turning them into ashes before they could realize it.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Around an hour before Naruto woke up, Tazuna went to work on his bridge with team seven to guard him. Sasuke was eager to fight again after having mastered the tree climbing. To say the truth he had been more than a little pissed when Kakashi had told them that they wouldn't have learned anything else, saying that there wasn't enough time for them to master other skills well enough to use them on the battlefield.

Sakura was stealing glances at Sasuke, but thoughts of the dark boy were clouded by those of another boy. So, yeah, Naruto had the most amazing eyes she had ever seen, and without those monstrous goggles she had been able to see that he wasn't bad looking…he was handsome… But Sasuke was, well, he is Sasuke! He's cool, the strongest genin of the leaf, he's smart, and there was no doubt in Sakura's mind that once he awakens his Sharingan, the Uchiha's eyes would be just incredible.

'Right, there's simply no comparison between them, Naruto could be the adopted son of a sannin and good looking, but he's just a child. He talks about sponges all the time; how can he be so immature?'

Kakashi stifled a sigh while observing his charges. Sakura was once again lost in her world, and Sasuke, even if he wasn't distracted like on the way to Wave when they encountered the demon brothers, just wasn't focused as much as he should be. Shino seemed the only one who was always on full alert.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the bridge, but once there they immediately knew that something wasn't right.

An unnaturally thick fog was covering the entire area, hiding everything in an impenetrable white shroud. The moisture in the cold air, however, wasn't responsible for the shiver that went down the genin's and Tazuna's spines as much as the feeble groans and whimpers coming from ahead, from the end of the bridge, where the other workers were supposed to be.

Kakashi didn't waste a second; he had a bad feeling about this.

"Shino…"

"My bugs are already on their way, sensei."

Their whispers were interrupted by a loud voice coming from the mist.

"Ah, so we meet again, Hatake. I don't see your friend though, where is he? I wanted to apologize for not recognizing the son of your old third Hokage, I could even have been paid really well for his head too…"

The silver haired jounin didn't answer, he was too worried assessing the situation and he didn't need to be a genius to realize it wasn't a good one.

Zabuza was in front of them with a confident grin, somehow visible even if covered by his bandages. At his side stood the same boy that saved him the last time, still with the fake hunter-nin mask on. On the railings of the bridge the demon brothers, one on their left and the other on their right, were glaring at them while fingering their metal claws.

And as if they weren't enough to pose a serious and deadly threat, which in Kakashi's opinion they were, another Mist missing-nin came forward from the fog behind Zabuza. He had long dark green hair, a backpack covered by his cloak, two strangely shaped swords in his hands, and a face that he recognized as that of Kurosuke Raiga from the bingo book.

Kakashi swore, another former elite swordsman of Kiri. What the fuck was the Mizukage doing to have all his stronger ninjas betray him? Well, apart from ordering the elimination of every single bloodline limit in his country, taxing thrice as much as anyone else, executing some people without trial, cutting the payment of his ninja force, …

Ok, so the Mizukage had a target on his forehead inscribed with 'I'm a bastard, kill me and you'll be a hero'. Still, why did little poor old Kakashi have to fight with all these missing-nin? It wasn't fair!

The copy-nin just hoped Kurenai and Asuma would come quickly, he and his team were not going to make it otherwise.

"You know what, Sharingan Kakashi?" Zabuza said, "I'm feeling generous, so if you and your cute little brats step aside and give me the old man I may let you live."

"What? Screw you, Zabuza, you said there would have been funerals, and I'm going to make them one. If you don't like it, then I can just as well make one for you too, so I can talk about our time in the Mist's ranks on your grave!"

The leaf jounin didn't know if feeling relief from the fact that his enemies were arguing among themselves, or being worried about having to face a psychopath that killed his whole graduation class and a psychopath that apparently wanted to kill and make funerals for everybody.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

While the two ex-swordsman of Kiri were arguing about their killing habits, a mass of kikai bugs reached the clearing where Kurenai was having her team doing some light training. The three jounin senseis had agreed that none of their genins were to tire or hurt themselves now, since they expected an attack at any moment.

So, because it was somewhat expected, when they saw Shino's bugs coming, team Kurenai immediately knew what was going on and didn't waste a second in speeding towards the bridge to help their comrades.

The bugs, however, knowing their opponents were harder and more numerous then expected, continued on their way to Tazuna's house. After all, their master had enough insects to fight even without them, and relying the message to Asuma wasn't going to take too much time.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

On the unfinished bridge, things weren't going so well. Sasuke had eagerly engaged the other boy on Zabuza's side, and, although they seemed evenly matched, the humorous glint in the demon of the Mist's eyes told Kakashi volumes on how much the fake hunter-nin was currently holding back.

His other charges weren't faring better: Shino was desperately trying to keep the demon brothers at distance to avoid being caught in one of their short ranged lethal attack, and luckily his bugs were proving to succeed in this, if with some difficulties.

Sakura, however, was beside Tazuna, her assignment that of taking down any threat that managed to pass through her teammates. Kakashi really hoped there wouldn't be any before at least Kurenai arrived; the pink haired girl wouldn't survive.

Thankfully, Raiga was mad enough with Zabuza to have simply declared that he won't fight until the latter formally apologized and let him kill all he wanted. While the second condition was no problem, Zabuza refused to say sorry for now.

Kakashi found it ridiculous but wasn't going to complain anytime soon.

'It's the first time I've met such morons that let their petty issues endanger their mission. Thank God they're my enemies.'

His musings were cut short by a swing of Zabuza's zanbatou, which missed his head for a couple of inches. His Sharingan eye had seen it at the last second (or more precisely, two seconds before the last one), but in the thick mist created by the Kirigakure no jutsu, his acquired doujutsu wasn't helping as much as it could have. Not to mention, he was having problems keeping an eye on his students, too.

This time the sword cut the Yondaime's student's jacket wide open. The one-eyed jounin berated himself, he should know better than letting his mind wander during a fight. He tried to counterattack and regain some ground, but when his kunai effectively managed to hit Zabuza's shoulder fair and square he was surprised.

He didn't expect the swordsman to be so slow. He had hoped for a cut, not for his kunai to embed itself in his shoulder deeply. It was as if the ex-Kiri-nin's reflexes had slowed down, much like when in a genjutsu…

Kakashi stole a glance behind and felt a small smile grow on his face when Kurenai nodded back at him. The red eyed kunoichi was standing back near Tazuna, who was still guarded by Sakura, and thanks to his Sharingan Kakashi could see that she was throwing low and middle level genjutsu at all their fighting opponents. It wasn't to defeat them as much as it was to create openings for him and the genins to take them down.

And speaking about the kiddies, Kakashi was somewhat relieved to see Hinata and Chouji helping a tired Shino, who was clearly having a hard time two on one. He felt a tinge of worry, however, at the sight of a strange formation of what appeared to be glass or ice, from where he could faintly hear two voices of Sasuke and Kiba.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"You stupid dog, why the hell did you come _inside_ when we could have made a coordinated attack?"

"Well, forgive me if I came to rescue your sorry ass, pretty boy. Who the hell do you think you are, Uchiha? Have you taken a good look at yourself? 'Cuz from where I'm standing it looks like he wiped the floor with you!"

Haku observed calmly while the two boys were throwing insults at each other. Really, doing this kind of scene during a fight, they were so childish…

Out of the corner of his eyes the ice user noticed a souring Raiga grumbling to himself or his backpack, and sweatdropped. Ninja these days seemed the jokes of the elemental countries.

Shaking his head he grabbed a handful of senbons and prepared himself. In a heartbeat, Haku was flying through his mirrors, raining needles upon the two leaf genins who were opposing his master.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Raiga wasn't happy. He wasn't fighting. He wasn't burying anyone. He was just sulking, throwing the occasional longingly glace at the shinobi and their clashing techniques. He wanted to join them, but…

"I don't care, until Zabuza apologizes, I'm not lifting a finger. Besides, I don't see anyone worthy of one of our funerals, don't you think Ranmaru?"

"I don't care as long as you're happy. But what was the point of coming here, then, Raiga?"

"If only that damn bastard apologized. It's all his fault."

The swordsman fell silent and resumed his observing of the fights going on. Hatake and 'the bastard' were evenly matched, even if every now and then the latter's movements seemed to falter, thus leaving an opening.

The stupid duo, or whatever the hell the metal clawed minions names were, were in a similar predicament against the three leaf kids.

All in all, the masked boy who displayed an elemental bloodline limit was the only one whose fight had a clear winner despite the other two boys and their puppy's attempts at resisting.

"Raiga, I see someone coming. Other Konoha shinobi."

Sure enough, soon another leaf jounin and two genins joined the battle. That however was the last straw for Zabuza, and forgetting his pride for a second in his anger, he shouted at his inactive ally,

"Other nuisances? That's it! Raiga, you dirty shitstain, I apologize. Now move your fucking ass and take those fuckers out!"

Ignoring the less that sorry or friendly apology's tone, Raiga took his swords and launched himself at the newcomers.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Asuma had barely the time to instruct Ino and Shikamaru to help Sakura defend Tazuna and try to drag the bridge builder out of there when a green haired man with two oddly shaped blades attacked him.

Judging by the lightning that hit the spot where the swords touched the ground, his opponent was a Raiton user. What a lucky day to have a wind affinity.

Asuma dodged another swing of his opponent and took out his trench knives. He charged his wind natured chakra through them, making them much more sharp and deadly.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Things were going downhill. No matter how much Kiba wanted to deny it, neither him nor Sasuke were a match for Zabuza's accomplice, and his ice mirrors were unbelievably hard. He and Akamaru had tried and failed to break them with their combined attack, and even the fireballs of the young Uchiha failed to do anything.

Kiba cursed. If only he'd known a powerful jutsu he would have destroyed that masked bastard and put those senbons of his where the sun doesn't shine. Sasuke himself was having similar thoughts, with the difference that he didn't even acknowledged Kiba's attempts in his equation.

"It seems that this is the end. Prepare yourselves," Haku spoke softly, readying his needles.

He was about to let loose his final attack when a new figure appeared into his dome. He stopped for a second to study the newcomer, and recognized the orange clad boy he had met in the forest. The vibe he was getting from him, however, was completely different, and far more dangerous.

Kiba looked up in surprise when he saw Naruto, not just because he came out of nowhere, nor because Akamaru had retreated in his jacket with a whimper, but because he wasn't smiling.

It was strange, but Kiba suddenly realized that Naruto _always_ had a smile on his face, and even when he wasn't he somehow gave the impression he was cheerful and relaxed nonetheless. This was the very first time he saw him irritated, and his instinct were telling him to run as far as he could and then keep on running.

Sasuke on the other hand didn't have instincts as keen as an Inuzuka, was tired and pissed and being beaten like a practice dummy, so he spoke without noticing any of it.

"You moron! What the fuck are you doing _inside_ here? Can't you see that you had to stay outside an-"

Sasuke fell to the floor unconscious with one needle in his neck, courtesy of… Naruto.

"Shut the fuck up; I'm in no mood to deal with a whining brat."

It was at this time that both Kiba and Haku noticed that he wasn't wearing his goggles, but had them hanging around his neck.

"Haku, would you please just surrender? I've had an horrible morning…"

Haku made eye contact with Naruto and felt a shiver run down his spine at his red-slitted eyes. He shook his head to clear it and grabbed his needles. Zabuza had given him a mission and he'll do it.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do it. I must stop you."

With those few words Haku once again began jumping from one mirror to the other while firing the senbons at his opponent. Naruto was faster and had better reflex and agility than he thought. He dodged almost all of them, only letting a few strike him. Haku was impressed with his skills, but all he had to do was repeat the process, launching needle after needle, until in the end even Naruto couldn't keep up any more.

Haku looked at the orange clad boy in front of him breathing heavily and took the final needle to strike in his neck, when suddenly a sound like hundreds and hundreds of birds floated through the air. It came from where Zabuza was fighting the copy-nin Kakashi. Haku could feel that the Konoha nin was gathering a huge amount of lightning chakra, while his master's levels were dangerously low.

'No, Zabuza-sama!'

Haku began to make the handsigns to create another mirror and help the demon of the Mist, when Naruto took advantage of his distraction to punch him across the face just as he was leaving through the mirror. Haku lost his balance and tripped, sliding across the ground halfway between the dome and his master.

"Zabuza-sama, NO!" the ice user yelled, staring at the life leaving his master's eyes after being impaled by the lightning attack. He was frozen in place until he heard someone clapping. Gato, the vermin himself, had a smirk on his face and was ranting about how he wouldn't have paid them and was going to kill Zabuza anyway.

"But I see that his little minion is still alive… that won't do now, will it?" The businessman ended with a smirk, while his thugs grinned, unsheathing their swords.

Haku stared at Zabuza's corpse. He had failed. He had failed and now Zabuza was dead. He was useless, a useless tool. He deserved death. But there was one thing that he had to do before that. He had to avenge his master's honor. Gato had used them, and would have stabbed Zabuza in the back, and for that he had to die.

Having decided on his course of actions, Haku took up the demon of the Mist's sword and charged Gato's army head on. Thugs simply weren't comparable with a ninja, they had numbers and Haku knew that in the end he would die either from exhaustion, at the leaf-nins' hands, or at the people of Wave's, but it didn't matter.

The ice user jumped back avoiding a katana that passed mere inches from his face and tried to regain his breath. No matter how many he killed, it seemed almost as if for every mercenary who died two more took his place. Tightening his grip on the zanbatou, Haku readied himself for another assault when an arrow landed between him and Gato's army.

Turning his head, he saw the people of the village lead by the bridge builder's family. They were armed and ready to slay Gato and his mercenary as well as Haku himself. After all he was Zabuza's tool and Zabuza did try to kill Tazuna.

So Haku was basically cornered by two mobs who wanted to kill him. Oh right, there were also the leaf-nins. And someone was approaching him from behind. Glancing over his shoulder Haku paled. It wasn't possible. A third mob. But this one he had already met. He had already killed.

They were armed villagers, much like the People of Wave, but it was who lead them that caused Haku's heart to skip a beat and his brain to shut down. His father.

He still had Haku's mother's, his own wife's blood on his hands. He was crying, but in Kiri there was one belief and one law that reigned over all the other: bloodline limits had to be eliminated.

As his father raised his weapon Haku screamed. Then all became darkness.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Shizune was humming quietly while making order among various medicines. Life was great. Her relationship with Minato was going great and slowly growing into something serious. Tsunade seemed to have come to terms with her past and was now head of the hospital. Naruto, her adopted and sometimes embarrassing little brother, was now a genin and a good one at that.

Yeah, life was great.

Just then her peaceful day was rocked by someone _destroying_ the door and shouting loudly a "Hello, Shizune!".

The dark haired medic almost made the bottles she was reorganizing. She threw a glare at the younger kunoichi who grinned back at her. Despite the age difference, she and Anko had known each other and been friends since the purple head had graduated and had been taken by Orochimaru as an apprentice.

It was when Tsunade still was in contact with the village and both she and Jiraiya had teased their old teammate about the fact that their own students were much older. In particular, Minato would have taken his genin team that same year. At the time Anko had graduated early, her being eight years old, and Orochimaru chose to take her, and only her, under his wing.

Even if Shizune had never seen her much during the years, those few times the two had developed a sisterly relationship, and with how few friends Anko had after Orochimaru's betrayal, that bond had become quite tight despite their not seeing each other.

That however didn't mean Shizune didn't get annoyed with the snake mistress's antics every once in a while, especially if she snuck up behind her, shouting in her ears to scare her. She already had Naruto do that. The medic-nin shuddered at the thought of how similar the two were when it came to playfully prank people, although Anko's jokes tended to be a bit cruder and potentially lethal.

Shaking her head, Shizune decided to know what her friend had in mind this time.

"Anko, how many times have I asked you to stop doing that? Never mind, just tell me what's up."

The other kunoichi pouted a little and huffed. "You're no fun, really. And here I even spent some of my precious time to come and say hi and bring you some of that poison you asked me last week."

Shizune smiled at her childish behavior and took the phial with the poison. As soon as she had it, however, she almost dropped it when Anko, looking outside a window with a smirk blurted out her question.

"So, what's this about you and Hokage-sama going to fill our village with little blond monsters?"

"WHAT? NO! I mean we didn't… we just…he-I-"

Anko raised an eyebrow at her, an amused glint in her eyes, "What's this? Maybe the 'Yellow Flash' is a nickname with multiple meanings?"

"ANKO!"

The fishnet clad kunoichi burst out laughing at the older woman indignant expression before waving her hands, "Just kidding, just kidding. Seriously Shizune, now I understand why Tsunade-sama said you're so fun to tease."

"Tsunade said that, hm? -Sigh- This is Naruto's fault… he's rubbed off her in the worst possible way, I almost liked her better when she gambled and got drunk on a daily basis."

Anko looked pensive, "Naruto? Ah right, the little brat Tsunade adopted. I've heard he got the second place in the academy, and that he's a prankster as well as a troublemaker at heart. Sounds like an interesting kid."

Shizune nodded, inwardly praying that her friend didn't decide to teach her little brother how to turn his pranks into deadly traps.

While when he was younger he'd rather sleep all day, as he became older he spent more and more time looking for something to do. As of today he'd done four things: missions, playing, reading and pranking.

Stealing didn't count, it was just as natural as walking or breathing for him.

However, even if he always listened to whatever Tsunade told him, and complied to any request she herself made to him, he also had a talent to cause trouble without crossing whatever limits they put on him and his actions.

Anko's influence was the last thing he needed, so Shizune decided to change the subject,

"So, how's it going working with Ibiki? Anything interesting?"

"Oh, you'll never guess what me and that old scar face are going to do!" Anko answered with a big grin that somehow reminded the older kunoichi of a little girl that received a new doll. The fact that she knew that Anko decapitated and sectioned hers when she was a child only added to how unnerving such an expression could be.

"Your little blonde boy-toy included us as possible proctors for the next chuunin exam. Ibiki said that if we're chosen he'll do the first part, and then I'll play with the tough ones."

Looking at her, Shizune _knew_ that such cheerfulness meant those genins would be scarred for life. It wasn't that Anko was a bad person; she simply liked to mess with people's heads. And had absolutely no moderation, none at all.

Tsunade's apprentice was about to reply when someone came into the room.

"Hey Shizune, just the person I need. Do you know if th-" Rin came to an abrupt halt as soon as she saw who the dark haired medic was talking with.

What followed was a minute or so of silence in which both Anko and Rin tried their best to not make eye conctact while Shizune was looking back and forth between the two.

"Well, I have to go. Tell me if you need anything else, bye." Anko said, then hurried out of the room still avoiding looking at Rin.

After the snake mistress left the two medic nins remained in silence from another minute, Shizune staring at Rin, who seemed to find the wall really interesting. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and decided to just ask.

"Er… What was that about, Rin?"

No answer.

"Is it because of Kurenai? I know she's your friend and all, but…"

"No." Rin sighed, "It's quite the contrary, actually."

Shizune frowned, "What do you mean?"

Rin squirmed under the elder kunoichi's stare and mumbled her explanation, "It's not because of Kurenai and Anko's…quarrels…" she trailed off, then took a deep breath and added, "The truth is that they're like that to each other because of me."

Shizune blinked. 'There must be something I'm missing, how could _Rin_ have caused those two to basically hate each other? I know Kurenai has been her friend since like ever, but Anko? The only reason she even knew who Rin was is because-'

The dark haired kunoichi's thoughts came to an abrupt alt as her eyes widened in realization. But it was insane, did at least Kurenai knew everything or simply acted on Rin's behalf even when she herself didn't say anything?

"Uhm…well, since you're busy tidying here I'll ask someone else. See you later." And with that, Minato's old student fled from the room.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Naruto watched with a neutral and detached expression as Haku fell unconscious with a scream. His mirrors, once their creator could maintain them no longer, followed soon after. Kiba, who was panting heavily, looked from him to the fake hunter-nin in disbelief. He didn't understand how that was freaking possible.

One moment he and Sasuke were trying their damn hardest to find a way to survive that ice mirror jutsu, then Naruto comes out of nowhere, states that he's in a bad mood, makes eye contact with Zabuza's accomplice, _and that same nin who was wiping the floor with him and Sasuke screams before falling unconscious on the ground! Just like that!_ How the fuck did he do that?

Kiba was about to voice his thoughts when Akamaru started to whine. It seemed the pup had absolutely no intention to go near Naruto as long as he was in a bad mood. Following his partner's advice, as well as his own instincts, Kiba stayed silent.

Naruto however must have felt his wonder, because he spoke up,

"You should respect Kurenai, even if she isn't an expert with flashy jutsus you have no idea how lethal illusionary techniques can be."

Kiba nodded and made a mental note to do absolutely anything Kurenai said without complain. If he thinks that he had told her that he wasn't interested in genjutsu because it was useless compared to ninjutsu… He'll have to apologize. Profusely.

Naruto gave him a last glance before turning and walking away to see the other fights. He saw his two teammates, Ino and Shikamaru, standing with Sakura beside Tazuna, probably to defend him from sneak attacks and wandering kunai or shuriken. All in all they were unscratched.

Not far from them Kurenai was protecting the remaining three exhausted genin, Shino, Chouji and Hinata, who had taken out the demon brothers. Naruto wondered if they knew that the genjutsu mistress had helped them casting random illusions on the two nuke-nin, just like she was doing to Zabuza, Raiga, and even Haku, before the orange haired boy took him out.

Naruto felt his mood going up a bit at the thought that the kunoichi was effectively taking part in all the fights without moving from her position. Let the other think she isn't a threat, he knew better than trusting the appearances. Really a pity that she was with Asuma, he liked a skilled woman, althought Kurenai was a bit too formal and composed for his tastes.

Speaking of Asuma, he was kneeling near the railing of the bridge, where a deep gash had split the concrete. Probably a wind technique, if the trench knives with chakra sensitive blades he was holding were anything to go by. It looked like his sensei's enemy had lost the ground under his feet and feel in the ocean beneath.

Looking for his last comrade, Naruto found Kakashi about to give Zabuza the killing blow. The Demon of the Mist was pinned down by what looked like dog summons, and the copy nin had just finished to charge lightning chakra to his hand. Naruto raised an eyebrow, 'That looks kinda cool, I wonder if I can it with fire…'

The silver haired Konoha jounin stared down at his opponent with a grave expression.

"You shouldn't have come here, Zabuza, this is the end!"

A sudden clapping at those words, however, prevented Kakashi to carry them out. The fog that once covered the unfinished bridge was dissipating, and all the ninjas plus Tazuna could make out the figure of a short man in a business robe, as well as the numerous mercenaries behind him.

"Gato… What are…" Zabuza spoke trying to control his panting, "…you doing here?"

"So the cute little devil had his ass handled to him, hn? How disappointing… But that's not a problem, you were going to die anyway." Gato sneered at him, "That's right, I never intended to pay yo-"

"HEY, LITTLE SHITSTAIN!"

Naruto's yell startled everyone on the bridge, not only because the jounins were the only ones who noticed someone else had come to the bridge, but because of how detached his next words sounded.

"You're the one who sent those two mercenary to kidnap Tsunami-san, right?"

If the business man was worried about that plan possibly failing he didn't show it. Evidently he didn't think that the boy, who walked towards him untill he was standing beside Kakashi and Zabuza, was a threat. One of his man, however, seemed to have a short temper.

"What did you filthy ninjas do to Waraji and Zouri?"

Naruto glanced at him for a second before refocusing his gaze on Gato.

"I'll take that as a yes. Those two are dead, they were misbehaving and didn't show any respect towards Tsunami-san and her wishes. They badmouthed my mother too…"

Kakashi could have sworn that Naruto's red eyes flashed. He had the distinct impression that someone was going to do something extremely stupid too. His instinct proved correct soon enough, when the same man from before unsheated his sword and yelled at the orange clad boy…

"You, little motherfuc-"

…only to be silenced by a kunai who went straight _through_ his head and embedded itself in the head of the guy standing behind him up to the hilt. If the sheer force with which Naruto threw his kunai wasn't enough to describe how pissed he felt, the killing intent sure did.

Asuma and Kurenai knew that such an intent wasn't something a twelve year old genin should be able to do, what they were felling was more akin to an ANBU's or an experienced jounin's. How a cheerful kid like Naruto could produce such an effect was… unsettling.

Kakashi and Zabuza however knew better. They had had more experience, Kakashi having fought in the war when he was younger, and Zauza being raised in a country like the bloody Mist, so they were able to detect something the other two jounin missed:

He was trying to restrain himself, badly.

"Not. A. Word. On. My. Mother."

Kakashi actually prayed that Gato had enough sense as to drop the matter. The copy-nin didn't know how Naruto could produce a killing intent comparable and maybe superior to his own _while trying to suppress it_, but he knew that even a thought against Tsunade-sama right now was equivalent to activate an explosion tag glued on your head.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on the point of view, Zabuza decided to give a piece of his mind too.

"Enough of this. Kakashi, we aren't enemies, I have no more reason to fight you. I have, however, to have a talk with my old employer…"

The leaf jounin nodded and stood back for a second while the former member of the seven swordsman began to tear apart Gato's men with his zanbato. Soon after he began to help him covering his back killing the mercenaries with well placed kunais and shurikens.

Kurenai was standing with the genins and Tazuna, who were looking with a half worried, half sick, half hopeful expression at the slaughter in front of them.

Asuma was still near the railing. He would have gone to help but he was exhausted and his reflexes and balance were still a bit off after Raiga's attacks. The leaf nin, however, stood up and walked up to Naruto, who was watching the gruesome show with a neutral face, although, if one were to look closely, they'd notice that his bad mood seemed to get better.

When Zabuza reached Gato and cut his head neatly in particular, Naruto gave a brief grin.

The mercenaries weren't happy with their 'meal ticket's' death, but the timely arrival of the people of Wave was enough to scare them away. Zabuza himself seemed worried: Raiga was nowhere to be seen, the demon brothers laid dead on the bridge, Haku was on the ground either dead or uncounscious, and he was wounded, tired, and needed medical attention. If they attacked him now he wouldn't be able to get away.

His thoughts were interrupted when the orange eyesore of a genin who arrived not to long ago made him sat down and started treating his wounds. He idly remembered Haku saying he had a suspicion about this particular boy being trained as medic-nin. And speaking of his young student…

"Say boy, how's Haku?"

"He had a pretty big shock, but I don't think to have damaged his mind too badly. He'll be fine, just like you. By the way, thanks for killing Gato, you helped Wave and freed the world of a little worm with a mouth bigger than his brain."

"Hmph, I simply made my own interests, bastard wasn't going to pay me."

Naruto didn't answer to that. He finished bandaging Zabuza's arm then moved back to his teammates and sensei. The demon of the Mist, under the watchful gaze of Kakashi, shrugged and followed the Konoha ninjas back to the village, his eyes fixed on Haku's unconscious body.

* * *

Yomi kasai - Fire of the underworld

Thanks to Akina for this (I kinda forgot what's the name here, it should be Hakosuka).

I'm not sure if Haku and Zabuza will come back or go on their on road. I don't really have anything specific planned for them, but I can always come up with something if you want.

I'm putting this with Tsunade as the second character in the main menu, hopefully more people will read it. Question is if they'll read the summary, where the pairing NauAnko is stated clearly, and understand that Tsunade is simply an important character…

OMAKE TIME!

First one by 'The Son of Naruto and Sakura': -If Naruto wasn't pissed I could have very well used something like this-

"I have one question before all of the bloodshed starts Zabuza."

"What is it brat?"

"How old are you?"

"I'm 26, why?"

"Wow, 26 years old and you're still a virgin."

Everybody on the bridge couldn't help but lose their fighting stances as they all gawked at the goggle wearing boy.

"I mean it is obvious that you are trying to compensate for small genitalia with such a huge sword. You try to project that you're a symbol of masculinity when you clearly must be sporting a senbon in your pants."

By this time, Zabuza was shaking with rage; Raiga was laughing; the Demon Brothers looked at their claws and then to their crotches, to which they then looked at each other and gave satisfied nods. All that could be known about the masked fake Hunternin was slack arms and neck extended towards Zabuza most likely with his mouth agape.

"I have to say that I am proud that I have a male sensei that doesn't need a piece of metal bigger than himself. Though I'm willing to bet Kurenai-sensei is happier about that than me."

Said kunoichi was now redder than Hinata, and Asuma just felt like he needed something a lot stronger than a cigarette.

"Though I am still trying to draw a conclusion about Kakashi-sensei. He doesn't even need weapons yet his face is always covered like it is hideous and is always reading IchaIcha rather than trying to create his own chapters with a real woman. This warrants further investigations."

Kakashi was sure that the kunai in his hand was going to snap in two from how hard he was gripping it.

"I deduced that you are still a virgin because you are afraid of women laughing at how small..."

Whatever Naruto wanted to say after that was drowned out by the swordsman's yell of fury.

And the second one by Knyght

It was late in the night and Kakashi was on his way to buy the newest edition of icha icha, when he saw a mob of villagers surrounding Naruto.

He though it could be an attack until one villager yelled "Praised be Sponge-sama!", then he saw a blind villager going toward Naruto asking the 'priest of Sponge-sama' to heal his eyes.

Naruto quickly poured some water in his sponge and threw it to the man face sloshing it, quickly the man yelled "I can see! Praised be Sponge-sama"

Kakashi kept walking muttering under his breath "I didn't see that. I know I should have pre-ordered the newest edition, the lack of new icha icha is rotting my brain"


	14. Aftermath

Naruto isn't mine. Do I really have to keep writing that?

Sorry for the long wait, I'd give you a good reason for it if I had one.

Anyway, I want to thank all my reviewers, especially those who are giving me material to improve the fic. Plus a special thanks to **Archangel630** for the new summary.

Finally, on a less good note, it came to my attention that a thief who calls himself 'Demonic Warlord' stole others' works and published them as his/hers. I can't really write how pissed that kind of thing makes me. I hope no one tries that with my work, I can be pretty unstable and unreasonable. On the other hand if you just ask…

Oh well, new chapter for you, enjoy.^^

*This chapter is currently unbeta'ed since it's been a couple of days but evilshroom hasn't even opened what I've sent him yet and it's taken already so long to finish it. I'm not happy with how I've written the end, any help/opinion/whatever is appreciated*

* * *

**CHAPTER 14 - AFTERMATH**

Haku abruptly sat up, his hand searching for one of his needles. His heart was beating fast, the thrill of battle cursing through his body, screaming at him to aim, throw, dodge, jump…

Except that he wasn't in a fight.

Trying to slow down his breathing he looked around. The room he was in had white walls and scarce furniture, only an cupboard and a chest of drawers. He had been resting in a futon at the side of which, on the wooden floor, was a basin with water and a sponge. Looking down he saw a white cloth in his lap that probably fell from his forehead when he sat up.

Haku didn't recognize the place, even if he somehow could tell that this wasn't one of Gato's hideout. The dark haired nin closed his eyes and rested his head on his knees, trying to search through his memories for what had happened.

He remembered he was fighting the two Konoha genins at the bridge, when the orange clad boy he had met in the forest showed up. Then… nothing. He must have been knocked out. But what happened after that? Was he captured? Then why weren't there any guards? Where was Zabuza? What…?

Haku took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Panicking wouldn't have accomplished anything. He concentrated his senses to feel other chakra signatures nearby. There were about ten, no nine, nine signatures that could easily match those of genins or weak chuunin. And four others that definitely belonged to jonins.

The numbers almost matched the Konoha nins, but there was one more jonin than expected. The ice user focused on those four signatures, when his heart skipped a bit. He knew one of them, it was Zabuza-sama, there was no mistaking it. And he was fine too! But why were they together with the Leaf shinobi?

Haku tried once again to search through his memories, but as soon as the boy he met in the forest joined the fight his memories ended abruptly. Was he defeated by the combined efforts of the three genin?

"Iceboy! You're awake!"

Haku was startled by the yell coming from the doorstep, and turning he saw Naruto looking at him smiling happily. At least he thought he was looking at him, he couldn't really tell with those dark goggles… And what made him think that calling him '_iceboy_' was funny?

"Er… Naruto-kun, I'd prefer you not calling me that."

The adopted Senju tilted his head before releasing a sigh and sitting down in front of the other boy. He smiled at him while taking a glass and two bottles out of… Haku had no idea, but one bottle was filled with water, while the other one had what looked like some kind of syrup.

"Haku, you need to face reality. I know it may be hard, and that you don't want to hear this, but you _are a boy_. I can't in good conscience call you icegirl. Besides I need to be honest and find a boy who'll accept you for you."

Zabuza's subordinate gaped at him a couple of times, his face becoming redder and redder with anger. Although Naruto would later tell it was in embarrassment.

Haku closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Naruto-san" he said, opting to be more formal "I'm very aware that I'm a boy, and I'm happy with that. I really have no desire to be a girl, and as for my sexuality I can assure you that I don't pursuit other boys."

"Sure. Then why are you in the girls room?"

A dark eyebrow twitched. "Since I was unconscious when I was brought here, _someone else_ must have arranged for me to be in this room."

Naruto grinned widely, "Ah…yeah, right." He chuckled lightly. "So how do you feel? That guy with the big sword was worried, even if he insults anyone who asks him."

Haku took a deep breath to calm himself, his lips twitching at the thought of Zabuza swearing as a sign of worry, before he decided to answer, "I'm fine. What happened at the bridge? Why aren't we fighting each other any more?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side while looking at him, "don't you remember?"

Haku shook his head, "the last thing I remember is that you jumped inside my mirrors."

The orange haired genin stared at him for a couple of seconds before pouring some of the syrup and a good amount of water in the glass. He then took out a needle and mixing the two liquids with it. Haku note with a hint of annoyance that the needle was one of his.

"Well, after I came into that dome you made, you took out Sasuke with a senbon in the neck. After that I tried to slow you down with a genjutsu, but somehow it must have accidentally hit you in time with one of Kurenai-sensei's large area illusion, and you were knocked out."

The ice user stared at the boy in front of him dumbfounded. That was it? A lucky hit? It made him feel humiliated and relieved at the same time. Naruto continued to update him on the situation.

"When I arrived Asuma-sensei had already taken care of a weird guy, I didn't see it but sensei said he was another ex-swordsman of the Mist and that he fell from the bridge when his wind attack destroyed the concrete under his feet. Tazuna was throwing a tantrum about it too.

"Anyway, soon after you lost consciousness Gato arrived and was dealt with, you can ask I-have-a-big-sword-to-show-how-badass-I-am later, but the point is that you were stabbed in the back. Oh, the two chained guys are dead, but don't speak about it, my friend Chouji was the one who gave the death strike and he's still a bit upset."

Haku nodded to show he understood everything and to thank him. The ice-user had now a lot of questions about what Zabuza-sama wished to do now, but he interrupted his thoughts when out of the corner of his eye he saw Naruto staring at him.

"Well… thank you for answering my question, Naruto-kun."

"It was nothing."

For a minute or so silence followed. When it became obvious that Naruto wasn't going to either leave him nor say anything else, Haku resolved to simply ask what he wanted. The orange clad boy grinned like a madman and put the glass in his hands.

"Today I've woken up with a craving for icicles. I've got the water, and I had the syrup in a scroll from home, can you…?"

The dark haired youth didn't know if feeling amused or irritated at the request. He decided that asking why on earth he even had thought of carrying a bottle with syrup wasn't worth it. In the end he simply complied, if nothing else just to shut the other boy up and prevent him from blurting out more nonsense.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Naruto closed the door behind him sucking his icicle. Mint flavour.

That had gone smoothly enough. The fake hunter nin didn't remember neither the effect of his illusion nor him hitting Sasuke. That was a thing solved then, and with less problem than expected. Modifying the two mutts' memories had been harder, but since he _was_ the one with the supposedly greater medical knowledge in the group, he just had to say he wanted to check him to take him away from the other and 'play his magic'.

Naruto chuckled. He loved saying that.

The only tricky part had been doing that to both Kiba and Akamaru at the same time, but even that wasn't really challenging.

Even convincing the jounin that his _weak_ genjutsu had taken out Haku only because he had been lucky enough to unknowingly cast it in conjunction with Kurenai-sensei's had been pretty easy. People tended to explain things in ways that assured them the most, and of course having a twelve year old genin beat a jounin-level ninja on his own with an extremely high level illusion would have been too strange…

So they accepted his explanation. It was pretty stupid, they probably wouldn't believe him he were to say the truth, not without proof. And that would cause a mess Naruto didn't feel like facing. No, he was happy being a simple genin of Konoha, leading a simple quiet life.

The heart of the matter was that they believed him and now there was no more any witness of his so called episode of friendly fire.

Naruto sighed. He should know better than loose his cool like that, what with all the problem that attacking a comrade would cause. It had been a stupid and brash thing to do. He could say that those mercenaries had upset him, and seeing two Sharingan when Sasuke started to throw a tantrum at him and been the final straw, but those were just excuses.

Luckily he had covered his lapse in self-control. And luckily he sucked enough with needles that he hit a whole inch on the left of where he intended to, causing the Uchiha to feel in a induced sleep without permanent damage.

It was kind of pathetic too, since he had been so close when he threw that senbon. Well, weapons had never been one of his strengths. The only reason he could use shuriken and kunai half-decently was because of all the practice he had had to do at the academy. And even now a part of him despised them.

At close range they were used by those who couldn't fight with their punches, and at long range by those who couldn't use their chakra and jutsu to take down the enemy. So, in truth, weapons were made by the weaks to compete with the strongers. A useless effort since the stronger ninjas began to use them as well, recreating the balance that existed previously.

It was an endless circle, the weaker trying to free themselves from the rule of the strongest, just to see their hopes being crushed. If things stayed that way humankind will end up destroying itself. The only way for a real change to happen was if it started from the rulers themselves… but humans are greedy, why would the powerful renounce to their privileges?

And why was he so philosophic out of the blue?

Naruto sighed. He had better things to do than reflecting on the destiny of the world, like looking for the storage scroll with his lemons. He had brought them along knowing that he wouldn't find any in a country with the same weather as Wave. He wanted a lemon flavoured icicle.

Rummaging in his backpack he found what he was looking for, a scroll with the tag "lemons". He opened it and smeared a bit of blood on the seal while pouring a bit of chakra to activate it. When the puff of smoke disappeared, the orange haired boy finally saw… three Icha Icha book?

"Oooops, wrong kind of lemons, eh eh." He paused. "Man, with there's no one around when things like this happen?"

Naruto resealed Kakashi-sensei's 'gifts' before taking the right scroll. With that out of the way he went to join the others.

The only thing he had to take care of now, were the questions the jounin senseis were likely to do about the two mercenary that came for Tsunami and her son. He could allow that bit of info get out in the open, mostly because he wanted to hear what they had to say to him about killing.

Still munching his mint icicle, and carrying his lemon scroll, Naruto made his way to the ground floor.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Asuma was nervous.

It had nothing to do with the previous day fight with Raiga, one of the seven swordsman of the Mist, who he basically threw over the bridge not really knowing if that man would survive or not. Nor had it anything with the nuke-nin's backpack that, only as the man fell on the waters, Asuma realized was a boy.

It had nothing to do with the other swordsman, Zabuza, who was currently with them at Tazuna's house, and would stay until his apprentice recovered.

It had something to do with the spots of burnt grass just outside said house that, together with Tsunami's tale, had lead him and his colleagues to the conclusion that Naruto, his student, had killed two men. As his sensei he'll have to talk with him about his first kills.

But the real reason was that at the end of the day Asuma was just a man who hadn't had a chance to smoke in a month and now was feeling the effects of that loss.

The fact that Kakashi snickered every now and then at his misfortune and that Kurenai had a slightly smug look didn't help. Although he found that that smile kind of suited her. And she was much more kinder than usual, especially when the others weren't around.

That didn't mean he'd like nothing more than strangle that lazy smart-ass of Naruto for taking his smoke. And he'd probably would have done it if not for the fact that Tsunade's less than understanding nature and violent disposition was legendary, especially towards those who attacked her family.

His father, who had been the Sannin's sensei, had once told him about the medic's retaliation to the poor souls who killed her brother and her lover before she left the village. Asuma had had trouble sleeping for weeks, and he was a newly nominated chuunin at the time.

The bearded jounin was shaken out of his thoughts when his evil smoke-stealer student joined them all in the admittedly crowded living room.

It seemed that his first kill didn't affect him at all, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Of course it could be that he had had a really good preparation, but doing the real thing should have elicited some kind of reaction. It wasn't good to suppress whatever he was feeling right now.

"Naruto, come with me." Asuma gestured to follow him outside.

The orange haired boy shrugged, created four kage bunshin, and went after his team leader. They walked a bit further from the house, Asuma deliberately leading his young charge to the very same place were he killed the two mercenaries, marked by two spaces of burnt grass.

When the genin's only reaction was to arch an eyebrow an tilt his head Asuma sighed. Damn, he wanted to smoke. He wondered why the hell he didn't send him to Kurenai when she was talking with Chouji and Hinata, or to Kakashi when he was doing the same with Shino. In the chaos of their first battle those three didn't even know who effectively gave the lethal strike to either of the demon brothers.

"So…" Asuma began "It seems you had encountered some problems before joining us on the bridge."

Naruto shrugged. "Couple of mercs. Displayed unhealthy intentions towards Tsunami-san. Made a _very_ unhealthy comment about mom."

"Unhealthy…?" Asuma was paying close attention at his student's body language. He seemed a bit too detached for his liking, like some older ninja became sometimes. But if he looked closer he could still see a carefully hidden and suppressed emotion… anger. 'Well, better than nothing at all.'

"They died because of those, so I'd say they were pretty unhealthy."

The third hokage's son had an idea of what he was talking about having already heard the story from Tsunami's point of view. What he didn't know was what katon jutsu Naruto used, and the boy's mental state after the whole ordeal.

And while he didn't need to worry about the former having decided to put his team training on hold until the end of the mission, the latter needed to be dealt with as soon as possible, hence their walk.

"Sensei?"

"Hn?"

"How should I feel about those two?" Naruto asked gesturing toward the two burnt spots.

Asuma scratched his chin, a nervous tick he was picking up from the lack of smoke. 'So that's it. He's still a bit shocked and doesn't know how to react to his actions, that's why he seemed so detached and indifferent to his first kills. He hasn't come to terms with what happened yet.'

Satisfied with his reasoning, Asuma nodded to himself before looking at his student and trying to help him with this issue.

"Well, the truth is that as ninja we'll be requested to do things that aren't always pleasant, Naruto. As much as I myself dislike killing, it is necessary." He paused thinking of a way to make what he was trying to say easier for the genin.

"Think of it as a play of shogi. In order to protect the king you need to take out your opponent's pieces from the board, as well as to sacrifice some of your own when necessary. As a ninja you'll have to do the same, and although it pains me to say it, it's sure that you'll not only have to kill more, but one day you'll see your comrades dieing too, if you don't precede them to the grave. But in order to protect the king, we can't back down, we have a duty, and we must fulfil it."

The boy's eyes were glued to the dark haired jounin for the entirety of the short speech.

"Just like shogi…"

"Well, I'll let think about it. If you ever have questions, doubts, or simply need to talk, come to me, ok?" Asuma then ruffled his hair and went back in the house.

Naruto watched his sensei going back to the house while placidly sucking his icicle. That talk seemed logic enough, and it did help him… although not in the way Asuma-sensei thought.

He turned towards the forest, the scent of the trees which surrounded Tsunami's residence mixing with the iodine's one from the ocean that surrounded the whole island. It gave him a sense of peace and freedom that made him smile happily.

A movement from one of the brushes caught his eyes. He waited patiently for a couple of seconds for the little flurry fox cub to come out. The kit was looking at him curiously and with a bit of awe, although Naruto was probably the only one who could make out those expression for what they were. He crouched down and took out a bone-shaped cookie from a pocket and offered it to the young fox.

"Come on, take it. I've snatched it from the dog, but it's quite tasty if a bit.. mh… coarse?"

The puppy sniffed it from his hand before yapping back at him.

"Yeah, I know: it's nothing compared to a nice rabbit, but I couldn't take that from the kitchen. Besides you have to earn a rabbit capturing him by hunting, otherwise it loses half the taste."

The kit tilted his head to the side while staring at him.

"Ah… you youngsters should really show more respect for the wisdom of your elders. Anyway, wanna try my mint icicle?"

"…"

"Fine, be that way. It's your loss. Now scram before someone decides you were killing their chickens or whatever."

The fox cub finally took the offered cookie between his teeth, turned on his paws, and fled back in the security of the forest.

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When Asuma entered the house he blinked in surprise. He had almost forgot the four kage bunshin Naruto had left behind before following him. The ex-fire guard couldn't really make out how that lazy-ass had the stamina to use the forbidden technique with such nonchalance, nor why his student felt the need to create those four.

Well, he understood why one was helping Tsunami, the poor woman definitely needed an hand and the boy seemed to have taken a liking to her. The clone that was playing with Shikamaru while reading was almost expected, although it reminded the bearded man that he still needed to have Naruto take an I.Q. test. He could even close an eye to the copy that was squeezing lemons in the kitchen.

But that one shadow clone snoring on the couch clearly asleep cemented his opinion that the red-eyed youth was a tad bit insane. He considered asking what made him think that creating a clone only to have him sleep was a good idea, but decided he didn't need an headache right now, and instead joined his two colleagues.

"How's your brat doing? And where is he?"

The question was asked by Kakashi who had momentarily averted his eye from his Icha Icha book to control if Naruto was coming near them, but not seeing him come back with Asuma he relaxed a bit more.

"He'll be fine, I left him alone to give him some time to think. If you don't mind me asking, would you tell me why you're always so skittish with him? Is it because of your books?"

Kurenai looked up at that and glared at the copy-nin who discretely kicked Asuma under the table. The last thing he needed was the woman finding out how he had been trapped into sharing his collection with the brat, and then her reporting it to Tsunade…

"This is all Rin's fault! She corrupted him!" The silver haired jounin blurted out.

"I doubt it, Hatake." The only kunoichi replied with a frosty tone.

"You're wrong, this is her doing. Some time ago she manipulated his poor, young, innocent soul into stealing my precious work of art. I bet she even made him destroy it! She has effectively killed his spirit and the little inner pervert every young man should have.

If he'll never be able to enjoy the pleasure of life it will be all because of her immature act of revenge, which strangely reminds me of how Kaori treated Tetsuo in volume three before she came clear and admitted she wanted him to take her and…"

His mumbling where interrupted by the same frosty tone, only this time accompanied by a feeble killing intent.

"I'll remember to tell her you theory, Hatake."

'Oh shit. Bad move, I just had to go and say that. Note to self: next time you're saying something about a girl, make sure her best friend isn't the person you're talking with.'

Asuma choose that they needed to change the subject so he spoke up.

"What's up with your genin, Kakashi? The young Uchiha seems broodier than normal."

"Oh that. Don't mind him, I've got it under control."

Sasuke was glaring at the solid clones of his orange haired ex-classmate. That jutsu… it was really useful, and Kakashi did say it was a forbidden technique that should be available only to jounin. However the orange moron managed to learn it out of sheer luck.

The last Uchiha grinded his teeth at the thought of such a powerful jutsu Naruto's hands. Of course, he knew that he was stronger than him, even in the academy Naruto was always behind him, but the fact that he managed to be a close second irritated him to no end, especially because he appeared to behave like a retarded the few times he wasn't just sleeping.

At the time he didn't think much of it, but lately he thought that if Naruto had actually applied himself and trained more, there was the feeble possibility that he would have beaten him. And that wasn't acceptable.

Sasuke closed his eyes. It didn't really mattered anymore, though. Now that he had awakened the Sharingan there was nothing that idiot could do, on the contrary, he could actually be useful. Since Kakashi had refused to teach it to him, claiming that he wan't ready for it yet, all he need to do was watch the idiot perform the kage bunshin no jutsu one time to have a new technique in his arsenal. He was ready dammit, he'll show the cyclope!

'Damn, I should have thought about this sooner, if I had activated my Sharingan a minute ago I'd have already copied it…'

The dark haired genin continued to sulk in his seat not noticing, or more likely just ignoring, two of his greater admirers bickering about who he'd go out with after the mission.

Kurenai, on the other hand, alternated between sending the two girls a disappointed glance and a accusingly stare at her fellow jounin instructors. It was their job to teach Ino and Sakura what being a ninja was after all, but as far as she could see, Hinata was the only one who could work properly in the presence of her crush, even if he had absolutely no shame and the Hyuuga heiress was definitely the shyest of the girls.

Said crush choose that moment to rejoin them.

Naruto had come back mainly because he had finished his icicle, and was now sucking just the needle in his mouth, not unlike that Genma guy he had once seen in the hokage tower carrying stacks of paper when his team went to pick a mission.

Luckily his clone had finished squeezing lemons for his next icicle.

"Hey brat, did you finish your damned sulking? I want to know when Haku will be ready to go, we've got things to do. That fucking bastard of Gato has made us waste enough time with his backstabbing shit."

Naruto looked at Zabuza with a raised eyebrow and seemed to think about his words for a while before answering.

"You should show better manners. After all, even if you described the situation really well, I doubt Tsunami-san appreciate that kind of language in her house, and I remind you you're her guest here." He deadpanned.

Unseen by everyone, said host stared at him, or better the clone that was helping her in the kitchen, in surprise before smiling and silently mouthing a 'thank you'.

Zabuza rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure, sorry. So how much before Haku can leave?"

"Tomorrow he'd be as good as new. Well, he could leave today, but it'd be better if you let him rest. Like my mother says, 'recovery needs time and rushing things just worsens their condition'."

"So your mother is a medic-nin? I thought it was strange for a boy so young to choose that speciality."

Naruto grinned at the swordsman, "Yup, my mom is the best medic in the world!"

"Oh really?" Zabuza said with sarcasm, intent on getting a little revenge for being scolded by this brat about his language.

"Yes, Tsunade of the sannin, the mother of modern medicine!" he paused a second before muttering "which makes modern medicine like my sister…"

Asuma's face impacted with the table.

The demon of the Mist blinked once. Twice. Then looked at Kakashi, who didn't react at the kid's proclamation about who is mother was. Finally he exploded.

"What. The. HELL? Hatake, you knew this and didn't say anything? Where is your fucking honor? What would have happened if I hurt him, huh?"

"Language, Zabuza-san." Naruto chided placidly.

"I mean, do you think I'm suicidal or something? Do you know what that woman can do? Or do you think I don't know that she basically went as far as leaving her village after her family was killed in the war? For a ninja of her status to do that was madness!"

It took several minutes for him to calm down. Since then he refrained himself from swearing any further, the fear he had displayed at the thought of having a pissed Tsunade hunting him down somewhat making him less hostile and more friendly, something that caused Haku to look at him in surprise and smile when he joined them soon after.

As for the hyouton user himself he didn't know what was worse, the Inuzuka and the Uchiha boys glaring at him, or the orange haired boy who was hanging from his neck and kept asking him to freeze icicle for him while making off comments about his sexual preferences and his supposed desire to become a girl.

"I mean you don't have to worry, I'm sure my mom could do the operation with minimal risks if you want. You wouldn't even need to rearrange your features 'cause they're already feminine enough."

After three hours of that Haku was seriously considering killing the boy or committing suicide, _anything _to be able to make it stop. Not even the feral brown haired boy's remark had made Naruto stop.

"You know Naruto, you hanging from a gay guy's neck like that makes me wonder about your own preferences…"

The young Senju had paused a moment to take his lemon flavoured icicle out of his mouth before answering, "I just don't think it right to discriminate Haku-chan for his sexual tendencies, besides I'm confident enough in my own… straightness, that I know hanging from his neck won't change it. And for your information, usually those who feel the need to yell their denial are the ones who hide something."

Three minutes later, when Kiba understood what Naruto was insinuating, Shikamaru had to take control his shadow to prevent him from attacking his teammate.

The following morning Zabuza and Haku left. They had refused to join Konoha even after Kakashi offered them to, something that Sakura had been shocked about. Kakashi had to explain her that, while it was true that Zabuza was a nuke-nin, he was a _Kiri nuke-nin_, meaning he had betrayed Kirigakure, a village that not only wasn't allied to Konoha but had also displayed hostile behaviour towards the leaf.

Most missing-nin were capable ninja with no alliance, green ninja usually didn't realize what that meant: unless a nuke-nin is from your village he's a potential ally. Of course you had to be wary of fake missing-nin whose betrayal was orchestrated by they own village so that they could infiltrate and operate as spies.

But in Zabuza's case it was painfully obvious that wasn't the case, and not just because he refused. Since he didn't want to join though, they let him go. He wasn't their problem after all, if the Mist wanted him than it was its hunter-nin duty, certainly not random Konoha ninja's.

Two days after that 'The Hero's bridge' was finished and it was time for the three teams to go back. Tazuna thanked them all and assured the jounin about the commercial agreement his country now had with the Leaf. Inari reluctantly thanked them too, a bit embarrassed by how he had behaved at first. Tsunami, however, was taking more time as every time she said goodbye to one of them Naruto came back to hug her. Only after Asuma made a offhanded comment about telling Tsunade-hime her son had found a new mother did he let go of her, and could they start their journey back.

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And here it is. Hope you liked it.

I feel like I'm getting a bit better, though I'm not too sure about punctation. Feel free to stomp down this feeling before it gets to my head. ;P

Next chapter will be a setup for the chuunin exam. I think I'll write something in my profile every now and then to let you know how much I'm writing and whatever. Anyway, the poll says not many of you wants to see my other idea done for now...*sigh*. Oh well, I keep changing little things while it's in stan by and it's getting really interesting the more things I change...

See ya next time.


	15. Back in the Leaf

Don't own Naruto or any other thing you could recognize from somewhere else.

I do own a yellow, soft, squishy sponge.

Thanks again to all of you who reviewed, I try to answer to all when possible, especially if you have questions, or point out mistakes or things you liked.

Anyway, dunno how many of you saw it, but the poll about my next story is officially closed, and the result is that I won't work on it for a little while longer. I'm sorry for those who wanted to see it sooner.

Now, without further delays…

* * *

**CHAPTER 15 – BACK IN THE LEAF**

Kumogakure no Sato was one of the five great hidden ninja villages, and probably the best to live in too. Its economy was doing well enough as they, unlike the still weakened Iwa, had already recovered from the losses in the last war. In addition, their daimyo had enough sense to not turn his requests to other villages like Suna's own was. The Raikage wasn't a bloodthirsty, racist, paranoid who promoted civil war like the Mizukage basically did with the bloodlines' purge, and finally, Kumo wasn't considered the strongest of the hidden villages like Konoha.

As much as the last point could have seemed strange for a civilian, a ninja instinctively knew that being seen and recognized as the best in something was never good news; because the higher you stand the harder the impact with the ground is when you fall. And that was inevitable since against such a power, the reaction of the other villages has always been the same: ally together to bring it down before it gained any more strength.

In the eyes of the Raikage, all of this was very clear. A hidden village was much like its ninja, it needed to be known for completing the assigned missions, but at the same time keep a low enough profile as to not attract unwanted attention from enemies. The exception to this rule was one and only one:

When a ninja, or a village, was so powerful as to have the absolute certainty that they could kill any and all opposition. Only then they could rise to the top without fear of the rest of the world.

The damned Yondaime Hokage of Konoha was a good example of that; everyone considered him to be one of, if not _the_ most powerful ninja alive. Before he became one of the Kage, with all the political implications of the title, such fame would have meant that shinobi of other nations, who sought glory and recognition, would try to beat or kill him in any way. But after his show of strength in the war against Iwa, those cowards from Stone put a "flee on sight" order in their bingo book for his entry.

His overwhelming power guaranteed that no one in their right mind would challenge him one on one.

But what the young Hokage probably didn't realize was that the same couldn't be said about his village as a whole. Sure, the Leaf produced some of the strongest ninja alive, and even when fighters like Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru of the Sannin defected, their remaining firepower was nothing to sneeze at, but the world was vast, and if more villages allied together they could be brought down.

All that was needed was a chance to undermine their strength a little, and the upcoming chunin exams would be the perfect occasion. After all it wouldn't be the first time some genin disappeared during the tests, so it was just a matter of making it looking like a normal 'exam causality'.

It's not like the Hokage could accuse him without proof, and the Raikage really wanted to get his hands on a little Hyuuga. He was sure at least one, if not more, would participate; showing off was the whole point of the exam in any case, so it was very likely.

Then with Konoha's fall Kumo would become the greatest of the five great Hidden Villages, and he won't have anything to fear because Cloud had the power of not one, but _two_ tailed beasts under their control which was something no other village could claim. Soon his village would rise to the top of the world.

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Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai had just finished their report on the mission after sending their teams to the hospital for the routine post-mission check-up. The Yondaime was glad to know that everything went well and that they had gained a strategic ally in the Wave Country. There was, however, one thing that left him perplexed.

"I still can't understand why you took an extra day to travel back to the village. What did you do, get lost on the road of life?" the blond Hokage asked looking at his one-time student.

Kakashi eye smiled at him before glancing at Asuma along with Kurenai. The bearded jounin actually blushed slightly when all the other occupants of the room stared at him. Clearing his throat, he took out an envelope and gave it to the Hokage who raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's this?"

"I'm sorry to say that the lateness was caused by one of my students," Asuma answered, "and since I wanted him to understand how grave his actions were, I've made him write an official report on his reasons."

Minato frowned at that. He remembered very well who was on his predecessor's son's team and somehow he doubted that the lazy Nara or the Yamanaka princess were the student the man was talking about. He also doubted Asuma's reason too; something told him he made his student write it just to torment him.

Sighing, he began to read the report.

"_On our way back from Wave, a nice place with a great views of the ocean and nice weather, the kinda place that it's the best for a pic-nic. I'll have to come back here sometime, and I'll have to say hi to Tsunami-san, her cookies are holy, no other word can describe them…"_

Minato jumped to the second page ignoring Naruto's rants on Wave, Tsunami, cookies, icicles, and a weird theory to dry the ocean with sponges filled with graphics and calculations. Really, that obsession he had with sponges… it just wasn't normal.

"_Anyway, as I was saying, or should I write 'as I was writing'? After all this is a written report…" _Here there were some messy signs, completely unreadable, only to continue a couple of lines below.

"_Right, on the way back from our mission I spotted a white rabbit. Since last time I spotted one it was used by ninja for a kawarimi, I decided to investigate and followed it. Soon after that, the white rabbit met a grey one who asked him, and I quote '_what's the matter, doc?',_ and it looked at a clock and answered "_It's late, it's late_" and kept running away._

_After following him for a good while, I saw him enter what I thought was his den and I went in after him, but then I started to fall, and…"_

The fourth Hokage groaned and put the papers he was reading aside after giving a fast glance to the other pages. They were filled with every kind of visions and hallucinations he usually associated with the most powerful of all hangovers, from mushrooms that make one change sizes, to talking playing cards.

"Kakashi, please remind me that I have to introduce the 'how to make a report' lessons in the academy program next year."

Asuma had a satisfied expression at having made Naruto write his babbling about chasing rabbits on the way home. After all why should he be the only one subjected to the boy's insanity?

Kakashi, however, adopted a sour expression and fixed his gaze on the Hokage, who raised an eyebrow at his unusual seriousness.

"What is it, Kakashi? Do you want to talk about Sasuke's Sharingan awakening?"

"Yes, but that can wait till later. What I wanted to talk about now has to do with what happened on the bridge…"

Minato's blue eyes stared him with an intensity unique to them. It gave Kakashi a deep feeling of pride knowing that, despite his rank as Hokage, Minato would listen to him as he had always done when he still was his sensei. Squaring his shoulders, he continued to talk.

"When one of Gato's men… _disrespected_ Tsunami-san and threw that insult at Naruto, and the boy released his killing intent… Well I know it's not really uncommon for a genin to snap like that every now and then, thus unleashing it with a greater force than what they can call out at will, but what we felt there wasn't just extremely powerful… I also got the impression he was trying to hold it back."

Kurenai looked at him skeptically, while Asuma narrowed his eyes. They were talking about his student after all, and it was his responsibility. Even Minato didn't seem totally convinced, although he'd never dismiss something like that, especially when it came from a skilled and trustworthy ninja like his own one time student.

"Are you sure, Kakashi? I know you have very sharp senses for this kind of things, but how could he be able to produce such a strong killing intent? I mean, we're talking about a boy who just gave me an official report in which he states that…" here he paused for a moment to read exactly what it was that the boy had written "the 'Queen of Hearts' was yelling to the others cards to bring her his head."

He looked at that paper with a mix of disgust, dread, and exasperation, and then went back to his argument.

"And we can be fairly sure it's not an act since he's been like this since even before he actually began attending the academy. Besides, Naruto shouldn't have any reason to hold back, just as he shouldn't have the experience nor the power to generate a feeling of the magnitude you're implying he could."

"I know," Kakashi sighed, "and that's what worried me. I can't think of a good explanation, but the most plausible one I came up with is if he has some sort of innate ability, and since his claim that he doesn't have one is the only thing that's keeping the council from trying to hook him up with the girls they want, it would give him a reason to hold back. Although I can't understand why he wouldn't want to practice polygamy, the things I would do…"

While even the secretary outside the office could feel that someone was getting extremely pissed right now, the copy-cat ninja seemed blissfully unaware of Kurenai's plans to put him six _hundred_ feet under. After all, the Genjutsu Mistress was of the philosophy: the deeper the better; something Anko was proud to have publicized in many distorted ways.

Minato however had no intention of seeing his student getting mauled, and just closing his eyes wouldn't save his office from blood stains, so he opted to ask them to leave.

"Hatake, get out of my office and go to the hospital for your damn check up. Asuma I trust you to do the right thing with your student, you and Kurenai are dismissed too."

The three jonin left the office, the only kunoichi of their group glaring at Kakashi while muttering some choice words the other two couldn't hear.

Meanwhile their three rookie teams were in a waiting room at the hospital, every one of them using the time before their visits in their own way.

The girls were reading some magazines left there for those who, like them, were waiting their turn, Sakura and Ino having dragged Hinata into their conversation about an article they found. Never once did they notice that the Hyuuga wasn't really listening to them, but was looking at one of the boys and getting a bit depressed in the process.

Speaking of the boys, Shino and Sasuke were sitting calmly doing apparently nothing, and Chouji was eating a bag of chips while Shikamaru was sleeping beside him.

Kiba, however, seemed to be in a bad mood and was pacing back and forth irritably. The feral boy had always had a rather limited amount of patience, and to make matter worse he, much like Hinata was doing, was watching Naruto shamelessly flirt with any and all of the pretty nurses that went past the room they were waiting in.

'It's just not fair; he's playing at home here with the whole 'my mother is a legend in the medical field' thing. Why the hell do the pretty girls choose to become nurses and not veterinarians? I'd be the one hooking up with all of them then!'

Just then a couple of nurses, two pretty girls in their twenties, one with brown hair and eyes and the other with long black hair and dark blue eyes, giggled almost hysterically at something Naruto told them while he was grinning with his head tilted to the side in his usual gesture.

Kiba crossed his arms with a huff and looked out of the window. Now he had a reason to hate hospitals even more. Suddenly his ears twitched as he heard a piece of their conversation.

"It seems one of your friends is getting impatient, have you been waiting here long, Naruto-kun?"

"Naaa, it's just that he can't stay calm for long. Personally, I'd rather this wait last forever so that I could stay with you two."

The nurses giggled again at his answer, while Kiba fumed. That was so damn _lame_, but somehow it seemed those two thought the way Naruto said it was 'cute'. Stupid pretty girls, stupid orange lucky idiot, stupid hospital, stupid unjust world.

The young Inuzuka was absolutely certain by now that things couldn't get worse. That was when Murphy's Law came into the picture bringing Kiba's sister, Hana, with it.

The kunoichi, who was also a vet, had come to the hospital to sort out a problem with some soldier pills as well as to get some morphine she needed for her animals, when she noticed her little brother with, she presumed, his teammates and old classmates, and decided to stop to say hi.

"Hey Kiba, You're back! How was your mission? Ah, hello everyone, I'm Inuzuka Hana, Kiba's elder sister."

Chouji could have sworn he heard Shikamaru mumble 'troublesome' in his sleep, but he waved at his teammate's sibling nonetheless, while Hinata stood up to bow at her, Sakura and Ino doing the same soon after. The Akimichi had a felling that they did that more to not seem rude compared to his Hyuuga teammate rather than out of pure politeness.

Shino _probably_ nodded, he wasn't really sure, Chouji was used to more open reactions and had never been able to completely understand the Aburame's subtle body language. Sasuke's expressionless nod just before he went back to staring at the wall was strangely much more clear and easy to detect.

Out of all, however, Naruto had always been the more… open? Expressive? Loud? Well, the point was that the orange clad boy, as soon as the nurses he was talking to left to take care of some work, literally jumped in front of the kunoichi, took her hand in his own, kissed it, and then looked her straight in the eyes.

"Hana-chan, it's been sooo long since we met. I tried to send you messages but I didn't know how to, I was afraid I'd never see you again."

'Liar' Chouji thought. He had a good idea of what Naruto was trying to do, and judging by the murderous look Kiba was giving him (or more specifically his hands that were still holding Hana's), his actions were having the desired effect. Even in his sleep Shikamaru was right, troublesome.

Meanwhile Hana herself was at a loss for words. Who the hell was this boy? Sure, the whiskers were tickling at the back of her mind, but when could she have encountered him?

Those thoughts must have been shown on her face, because the orange haired boy sighed before smiling with a little mirth.

"Maaa, did you really forget about me? We met at my first day at the academy, you were with Kiba and your mother, and you had three dogs with you. Come on, don't you remember me even a little?"

"Er…" Hana was having problems finding an answer. Now that he mentioned it she did remember a boy with whiskers just like him, but she couldn't for the life of her remind his name. That trail of thoughts however was interrupted by an angry yell.

"Hey, would you let go of her hand, right about fucking now?"

Naruto craned his neck to look back at Kiba, "What, you jealous or something? You know incest is wrong, right?" here he turned and leaned toward Kiba, and with a low voice so that Hana wouldn't hear him, added "Unless you have another hot sister, that is. They could be 'incesting' all they wanted as long as they make a tape or let me join-"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Kiba's face was beet red and the scream sounded almost hysterical as he tried to throw a punch at Naruto, who just dodged and hid behind Hana. It was just to make sure that she was between him and her enraged brother that his hands rested on her hips, yeah, just for that.

Of course they were still in a hospital, so it didn't take long for a doctor to show up and hiss out that they couldn't shout while they were there. Sometime between all of that, Naruto slipped out of the waiting room and went in search of a specific someone.

It didn't take long for him to silently reach the door of his mother's office and open it without a sound. Tsunade was reading something and had her back to the door, so she hadn't seen him yet.

In one of his childish displays, Naruto grinned widely and ran at her at top speed yelling, "YATTA!"

Tsunade, hearing the scream along with barely noticing someone jumping at her, acted purely on reflex. She bent down to dodge the unknown threat. This action, however, not only caused Naruto to miss his intended target, but, without anything to stop him, allowed him to fly straight out of the open window that was behind Tsunade.

Tsunade's eyes widened as they followed the form of her son falling out the window, while Shizune, who had just entered with a stack of papers, swore loudly "Holy shit! Naruto!"

An orange haired head appeared outside the window. Holding himself with an arm on the windowsill, Naruto used his free hand to point at the dark haired medic.

"Shizu-nee-chan swore! Shizu-nee-chan swore! She said the 's' word! Shizu-nee-chan swore!"

Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose at her son's antics and promptly proceeded to ignore both his singing and Shizune's outraged protests. Since working was out of the question with those two arguing like children, the blond Sannin grabbed a clipboard and left her office to do some medical rounds.

Naturally, as soon as she was out of the room, Naruto came out following her while his 'nee-chan' stayed behind, probably to file away some documents.

"So, how was your mission? Anything interesting happened?" Tsunade asked.

"Went well, a bunch of things have happened. How is your new job here?"

She gave him a suspicious glance at that question, "How do you know I'm working here? Better yet, how did you know where my office is?"

"The nurses love me, mom. Do you think we could go over the whole dating talk again, after this? I'm not sure I've understood all that gubberish stuff."

"_Gubberish_ isn't a word, Naru-chan."

"Aww…"

Soon they were back to the waiting room Naruto had left not long ago, but there were a couple of changes as to who was there. In fact both Hana and Kiba were no longer in sight, but at the same time Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai had rejoined their teams.

Tsunade made a quick counting of the genin heads and noticed that, if the four-man team was still the ongoing policy of the village, then there was one missing. Without looking, she grabbed her son by the scruff of his neck the second he made to run around and lifted him just enough for his feet to not touch the ground.

"Kiba is being checked right now, Tsunade-sama." Kakashi said standing up, as if he read her mind, "So, can I get this over with?"

Less then ten seconds after Kakashi left with Tsunade, Rin cleared Kiba and came to call in her next patient only to see that her ex-teammate has successfully found a perfect excuse to avoid her attempts at seeing him without his mask… again.

How the hell he managed to avoid her for about ten years during medical check-ups was something the Forth Hokage's female student couldn't understand nor stand. She knew that silver haired pervert was laughing at her every time, and it irked her like nothing else ever could.

Well, except for what Kurenai was going to tell her about Kakashi's latest comments about her corrupting children and his desire to practice polygamy, but she'd still had a good three minutes before hearing that.

In a nearby examination room the female Sannin was visiting the one eyed jounin while her left foot was firmly stamping on the hem of Naruto's shirt, effectively preventing him from going to wreck havoc. Kakashi had to admit that it was kind of funny to see the young genin squirming on the ground trying to lift his mother's foot.

_Squish._

Naruto froze on the spot.

"So, you said you had to use the Sharingan for an extensive amount of time, right? Did you suffer from chakra exhaustion?"

"Ah… no, not really."

_Squish._

Kakashi was fascinated by the total control Tsunade had over Naruto. All she had to do was take out a small blue round sponge and squeeze it a couple of times, and now the boy's eyes were following its every movement with a focus he had never seen the kid display even once during the entirety of the mission in Wave.

'Now I understand what sensei meant: it's unbelievable that a kid like him could have a great power like I was saying… I just hope Asuma will be able to find out more and that the brat will never misuse it if he indeed has an innate ability.'

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

It was later that evening, when a slightly concerned Tsunade looked at her adopted son as he was rolling on the ground, playing happily with his new blue sponge, after he told her everything that happened during his first C ranked mission.

Stupid jabs comparing her cooking to this Tsunami's aside, she was a tiny bit worried about what his teammates and the jounins might think after his display of being able to kill without blinking, even if he did a good job covering up his assault on Sasuke.

That was another troubling point; his momentary lack of self-control could have cost the Uchiha his life. Even if Naruto gave her an explanation - although admittedly vague - of his dislike for the Sharingan eyes, that wasn't a good enough reason.

On the other hand, however, she was relieved that none of the kids were seriously hurt. After all, if she considered everything, their mission had gone well enough, and even Naruto's lapse wasn't really anything important compared to what she'd expect knowing he…

"Kaaaaaaaaaaa-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan"

"What is it, now?" Tsunade asked.

He didn't answer right away, making his sponge roll on the ground from one hand to the other. His mother couldn't help the image of a cat playing with a ball of wool that came to her mind.

"I'm sorry for making you worry."

Tsunade smiled softly at him, he probably didn't even quite understand why he was apologizing, but still he was trying.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"He stripped naked right in front of you and little Hinata before diving in the ocean, just like that?"

"Yes, and keep your voice down, I'd rather not be telling this to the whole bar."

Kurenai's voice sounded like a mix between tired, embarrassed, and irritated. She and Rin had decided to go out to plan their revenge against Kakashi, well more like Rin dragging her here, but after ten or so different scenarios her friend asked her about their mission and the new rookies.

Rin had been a bit shocked when she realized she'd never really seen Naruto's eyes, she never really noticed he was always wearing those goggles, though that was probably because she'd rather not think how she knew another boy who used to wear a similar pair…

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure. So, it seems your little genin kunoichi is going to have a hard time, ne? Our little mascot seems to have a thing for older woman as far as I can tell, so maybe you should ditch his sensei and go for him."

Kurenai glared at her supposed best friend, "You're drunk, aren't you? Besides exactly whose mascot is he?"

"The hospital's, naturally. He already hung around it before, but now that Tsunade-sama has become the boss, he'll be there even more. Although she already told us that she wants to know when he's there. You should have seen it, just before going back home Tsunade-sama found he had stolen enough pills and flacons you had to wonder where he kept it all."

"Well, at least he's also kind of forcing Asuma to stop smoking." Kurenai said with a grin, "But I've told you what I could about the mission, now why don't you tell me how is it to work under one of your idols? And…" here she hesitated a bit before realizing that the med-nin was already tipsy enough to let some gossip slip, "…is it true that Hokage-sama is dating Shizune-san? And that Tsunade-sama threatened him for it?"

Rin smirked before answering, "Why Kure-chan, since when are you interested in mundane rumors?" She waited until the red eyed Genjutsu Mistress scoffed at her and began to drink, then she leaned forward and whispered "Well, I don't know who started that rumor, but I don't think that, in order to review the hospital's files, the Hokage needs to make out with a medic on her desk, does he?"

Kurenai choked and shot a glare at her friend, who patted her back while she coughed trying not to drown in her drink. That's why she hated going out to the bars with Rin, the young medic needed just a drink to become so annoying…

Well, she'd just have to endure this night out with her, after all, even if she'd never admit it, it was kind of fun, and in the next month or so she wasn't going to have this much free time.

Between other things, the Yondaime had informed her about his concern for the situation with Kumo. It was painfully obvious from the reports of their spies that something was going on, and that the Raikage was dying to put his hand on one of Konoha's bloodlines, most likely the Byakugan.

And Hinata, being the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, was high on the list of people to look out for, since the probability that she'd be targeted was high. That translation meant she'd have to speed up the training for her team.

Kurenai understood the situation and thanked the Hokage for telling her seeing as she didn't want to have Hiashi telling her this. It wasn't that she had anything against the man, but she was still embarrassed for having mistaken his brother Hizashi for him when she was assigned Hinata as a student. Stupid Mitarashi and her fucking pranks.

Shaking her head, the jounin sensei was hit by a random thought: she already had to train her team harder for the chuunin exams during which Kumo and foreign countries would send their ninja to Konoha, and going out of the village for the exams in the future would be even more dangerous… Was the Hokage suggesting she enter her team?

Maybe Rin wasn't the only one who was getting tipsy. Well, she had roughly a month to train them, so she'll decide when the time comes.

* * *

AN: Here we go, sorry for the delay. Next chapter will be the chuunin exams.

"Hey author, this AN sucks."

"What the… Naruto get the fuck out of my notes, this is my corner, mine!"

"Whatever, I was here just to tell you that you no longer own a yellow sponge. I've taken it. Bye"

*grumble* Well, see ya next time.


	16. Setting the pieces

I forgot to mention my thanks to **HaremLover** for helping betaing since last chapter. Thank you.

To **chris caple ()**, who asked about the NaruSaku stories that changed my opinion of the pair: Garden of Sanctuary and its sequels.

Now, what you were waiting for…

* * *

**CHAPTER 16 – SETTING THE PIECES**

Shizune nearly had a heart attack.

The morning had started like always: wake up, bathroom routine, dress, and go to make breakfast for her, Tsunade-hime, and little Naruto-chan. Despite the fact that he was already twelve she'd always call him that in her mind. Not that he minded if she used it in public, really, he was absolutely shameless.

Anyway, Shizune had just entered the kitchen when she received one of the biggest shocks in her life.

Tsunade-sama, her mentor was already there. Awake, dressed for the day, and sipping a cup of tea, _Tsunade-sama_ waved lazily at her.

Shizune checked the clock to make sure she hadn't overslept. She hadn't. The dark haired kunoichi stared at her master, whose eyebrow started to twitch irritably.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, nothing…" Shizune continued to stare for a couple more seconds before blurting out her question, "What are you doing up so early, Tsunade-sama? Not that you can't, on the contrary it's great to see you awake before noon but…"

"Breathe Shizune, breathe. I just thought that I'd rather be ready to make a quick retreat when the shit hits the fan."

Her apprentice looked at her quizzically while starting to make breakfast. As she passed near Tsunade, however, her nose caught a suspiciously familiar scent coming from the blonde's supposed cup of tea.

"Tsunade-sama, that isn't tea, is it?"

"No, it isn't."

"It's sake, right?"

"Want some?"

"How can you be drinking first thing in the morning?" Shizune asked with a frown.

The Legendary medic didn't bat an eyelash and answered calmly, "That's why I am the teacher and you're the pupil, Shizune. You'll find out soon enough, though."

Just then a yell came from another room of the house, followed by a half-naked boy who threw himself into the kitchen with tears in his eyes.

"How could you, mom? My clothes, my precious orange clothes."

"I've left you new ones in your closet." Tsunade answered while sipping her sake. "And what are those?"

Naruto looked down at his only piece of clothing, a pair of pink boxers decorated with red hearts and yellow bears.

"Jiraiya's gift. He said something about girls loving men who don't fear to show a tender side… but that's not it. My clothes, they're not orange anymore! You took away my vitamin C! I need my Orange, it's my _Loyalty_!"

The blond looked at him puzzled for a second before deciding that she didn't care about what nonsense he was spouting, "You can always go around naked if you don't like your new clothes…"

"NO!"

Mother and son turned towards Shizune, who had shouted out.

"I'm not letting you do that! Firstly it's indecent, and secondly last time you did something like that and Kurenai-san decided to tell me about it; she found me when I was hanging out with Anko! No matter what, I'm not risking to be dragged into another of their insult matches!"

Naruto blinked, then turned to look at his mother.

"Don't you think Shizu-nee-chan seems stressed?"

"You're right and apparently I was right about an apprentice of Jiraiya not being good for that kind of thing."

"I hate you two." the dark haired medic uttered dejectedly with a red face.

In the end Naruto was more or less forced to put on his new clothes while Tsunade explained that they were for appearances sake. It was her answer to Asuma's declared intention to nominate his team for the upcoming chuunin exams, and she clearly stated she wouldn't let him participate as a patch of orange.

"But it's like I'm going to a funeral! They're too dark!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes at him, "Well, the chuunin exams usually bring many funerals as results. Besides, dark suits you."

Naruto's new clothes consisted in a pair of black pants and a grey shirt. The boy was currently glaring at his grey and black ninja sandals, when Tsunade decided to take out her ace and hope he'll let this whole matter drop.

"Look, I've also taken a jacket in the same style of your old one, and its bright red. You like bright red, right?"

He looked at her suspiciously, "Red?"

"Yeah, Shizune thought it'd go well with your eyes. Here." Tsunade threw the jacket at him and continued, "Look Naruto, it's just something to match the exam's atmosphere; if you went with bright orange clothes you wouldn't look threatening. I know that it could be good, but the exam's aim is to show your strength, flashy moves, and all that shit that usually good shinobi avoid doing."

The boy still had a half-frown, then grinned with a mischief gleaming in his eyes and with cockiness in his voice he addressed his mother, "Wanna bet, I know of something orange that will make them all piss their pants in fright?"

Tsunade froze and glanced at him with perfectly concealed worry. If she hadn't been with her for all those years, Shizune would have missed it.

"Naruto, be good please."

The Slug Sannin didn't add anything else on the matter, only that she had work to do at the hospital before she made a run for it. Naruto left soon after to meet with his team.

While he walked to their designed meeting spot, he couldn't help but keep looking thoughtfully at his new clothes. It wasn't that they were bad, but the orange, the loyalty… it wasn't there anymore. Of course, walking while staring at his plain boring and grey shirt eventually resulted in him walking right into someone.

"Hey little shit, why don't you look where you're going?"

The boy Naruto had bumped into was noticeably taller and probably around fifteen years old. He wore dark blue pants, a sleeveless beige shirt, and a sword, the handle of which was sticking out from the top of his left shoulder. He had a Kumo hitai-ate around his forehead as well, which kept his blond hair out of the way.

Two other shinobi with the same headband were behind him, one with light brown hair and a scar on his right cheek, the other a kunoichi with long blond hair kept in a ponytail and a mild frown directed at the one who had grabbed Naruto by his shirt.

The adopted Senju glanced at the hand that was holding his shirt, and mumbled his reply with the same passion Shikamaru used to watch the clouds.

"I sense hostility…"

The eye of the Kumo shinobi holding him twitched in annoyance at his calm detachment.

"Naruto!" a yell came from around the corner "Where the hell are you, stupid nutcase?"

The red-eyed boy correctly identified the voice as his charming blond teammate, who in fact reached him soon after, dragging Shikamaru with her. She, however, stopped dead at the sight of the foreign ninja, one of which was still gripping Naruto's new grey shirt.

"So troublesome…"

The young Nara straightened a bit and observed with analyzing eyes the potential threat while stifling a yawn. Ino, however, was for a more direct approach, and addressed the Kumo shinobi with a stern voice that tried to hide her unease at the situation.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing to our teammate? Let him go!"

The blond shinobi put a hand to the hilt of his sword and looked at her menacingly before scoffing, "And why should I listen to a little girl like you, hn? Mind your own business, you'll live longer."

"As she said" Shikamaru intervened, "he's our teammate. And you really are stupid if you think you can get away with attacking a Konoha shinobi in our own village."

Gritting his teeth, the older boy and was about to unsheathe his sword when his female companion spoke up.

"Just let him go Shiro, you're making a scene for nothing. Besides the pineapple-head is right, we're guest here and you'll have to behave, or do you want to go back home and explain why we were expelled from the village before the start of the exams?"

The now named Shiro released his hold on Naruto, who oddly enough had decided to take a line from his friend and had been staring at the clouds calmly for the entirety of the exchange.

As soon as he was free, though, he fixed his gaze on the beautiful girl that had kept in line the sword wielding genin, and grinned widely at her. A second later he was directly in front of her, leaving all present ninja to wonder _when_ he moved, took her hand in his and offered to give her a tour of the village.

"My dear, there's so much to see, I'd be delighted to be your guide."

Shikamaru didn't need to be a genius to notice the two male teammates of the blond take a full step back and tensing their muscles as if preparing to flee. It was a pretty natural reaction, kunoichi were scary that way, and he would have dismissed it, if not for the genuine fear and worry he could perceive coming from them. It seemed a bit extreme, even for a 'flee-the-troublesome-violent-enraged-female' standard protocol.

The young woman's answer, though, while not exactly polite didn't involve castration or bashing, being a simple dry "No." as she slapped away Naruto's hands from hers. She then turned and left without another word.

Naruto, however, didn't have the time to get depressed as another blond girl, this time his own teammate, grabbed him by the neck of his new shirt and started shacking him roughly.

"You stupid, useless, lazy-ass! What the hell were you thinking? As if Konohamaru and Sakura with those Sand guys weren't enough, you go and nearly get yourself cut up by those Cloud nins! And what's up with that blond bimbo, hn?"

While Ino kept going on about everything that came to her mind, Shikamaru discreetly took a couple of steps back before the troublesome girl decided to give a piece of her mind to him too.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

In his office Minato Namikaze, fourth Hokage of Konoha, was going through all the registration forms of the participants of the chuunin exams.

His eyes skimmed through the names of foreign genin and their native villages, but despite Kumo's unexpected choice of sending a good number of teams, the new village of Sound entering the competition, and the Kazekage sending his own children, he always found himself going back to the three rookie teams of Konoha.

Only months out of the academy and they were already trying to raise their rank. They hadn't even fully hit puberty yet.

Minato sighed, scratching the back of his head and looked out of the window at the village he had sworn to protect with his life. He hated having boys and girls so young participate in the exams. There was no need for them to when the ninja force of Konoha had been growing steadily since the last war, and was currently the strongest out of all the great hidden villages, matching even Iwa's numbers for the first time since its foundation.

"A Photo of Shizune and Tsunade in bikinis for your thoughts."

Startled the fourth Hokage turned to see his old sensei sitting on his desk while staring at him.

"Do they know you have it?" The blond asked with a hint of curiosity.

Jiraiya snorted before answering, "I'm still alive, so no, they don't. Now, are you going to tell me why you've got such a sad face? Don't tell me Shizune-chan already dumped you."

Minato rolled his eyes while silently debating if it even deserved an answer or not. Observing Jiraiya out of the corner of his eyes, however, the blond could see that his old sensei had no intention of leaving any time soon. He choose to make things easier and just answer the sannin's question before the pervert started one of his embarrassing rants.

"I was just thinking about the exams. Kakashi has entered his team. Asuma and Kurenai did too."

"Oh. They're all rookies, right? Impressive." The comment earned Jiraiya a glare.

"As impressive as it could be, I don't like it. They're so young, just out of the academy, they shouldn't have to bear such responsibilities or take such risks when we have plenty of manpower already!"

The white haired man couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sudden outburst, "Why are you letting them participate, then? You're the Hokage, you can hold them back if you want."

Minato flinched and avoided eye contact frowning at his desk.

"Don't you remember what happened the last time I prevented a boy from getting a higher rank despite him being ready only because I thought he was too young?"

Jiraiya took on an unusually stern expression when answering, "Nothing happened. There's no indication that Itachi snapped because of that."

"He was really a genius, you know. He could have been an ANBU captain before his peers even graduated, he was ready for the responsibilities, but I held him back because I thought it would have been unnecessary to push him so much so early. Mikoto and Fugaku seemed somewhat happy to give him a couple more years before letting him join ANBU too…"

"Did you hear what I said?" Jiraiya interrupted him, "There's no proof that Itachi snapped out of frustration for being held back."

Minato's eyes remained unfocused for a couple of moments longer before he shook himself out of his reverie and fixed his gaze on his teacher.

"What did you come here for, anyway, sensei?"

The Sannin sent a mild glare at him for being ignored but answered nonetheless, "My spies have all sent warnings about the exams. One of the teams from Kumo in particular should have members a bit too powerful, but I couldn't find out which one so far. They're being careful; probably suspect they're being watched."

"Do you think they'll attempt to kidnap a Hyuuga? Damn, the heiress herself will compete in the exam, such bad timing…" the Hokage grumbled.

"Aside from them I've received word about the Kazekage having numerous meetings lately, but whoever he's meeting with it's someone who knows how to cover their trail. It could be nothing, but I always prefer to err on the side of caution."

"I'd like to say I trust him not to break our treaties, but between their daimyo giving us missions that should be theirs and the Kazekage's personal ambition it seemed to be only a question of time."

Jiraiya spared him a pitying glance before adding the last bit of intelligence he had.

"And that new village, Oto, I've looked for some info on them, but all I could find is that their leader had spoken with the daimyo of Rice personally and convinced him to allow the village's foundation. That happened two years ago."

Minato looked up at his old sensei with an uneasy expression because it wasn't often that the toad hermit came back with so little to report on a village.

"Yeah I know," Jiraiya interrupted him before the young Hokage could say anything, "I know this isn't much, but this self proclaimed Otokage is really a master in hiding and no one could even tell me _where _this new ninja village _is_."

A frown marred Minato's face as he thought over this last piece of info. Hiding a village wasn't easy, yeah the great ninja villages were called 'hidden', but everyone could tell you where they were. Only some of the littlest ones managed to effectively remain off of the charts like Waterfall, and that was usually because of their smaller numbers.

All in all it wasn't really something to worry about, but over the years he had taken up some of his teacher's habits; not the perverted ones, but the habit of basing his decisions upon the saying 'better safe than sorry' was one of them, certainly.

"I'll have someone keeping an eye on the Sound genins too."

Jiraiya nodded, glad that his one-time pupil came to the same decision he himself would have suggested. He was however surprised when the blond brought up another topic in their discussion.

"Since you're here sensei, I wanted to ask you something about young Naruto. Or rather, I'd like you to read this; it's a report about that mission the rookies went on together, this is the copy for Naruto's personal files specifically, and at the bottom you can find some notes Asuma and Kakashi added."

The white haired legend took the folder and started to read it, skipping through most of it and stared intensely at the final notes. Asuma's went over the talk they had about killing and his intention to have the boy undertake an IQ test. Kakashi's were more unsettling, detailing the feeling he had about the boy's killing intent and his suspects about a possible bloodline limit ability of sorts.

Even with only one eye that brat was too damn observant. Jiraiya pretended to be still reading while thinking about how to go about it: on one hand he had a duty towards the village, and as much as he didn't like it he should tell that Naruto probably had such an ability; but on the other, he didn't want to betray Tsunade's trust, nor had he any desire to make Naruto become a political tool for the council, which as a wielder of an unknown bloodline would be inevitable.

Sighing, he just decided to tell Minato. He may be Hokage, but he also knew when to report something to the council and when to keep his mouth shut. And honestly speaking, he trusted Minato to make the right choice, whatever it'd be.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"Tsunade-sama really has such good taste."

If he could have summed up the energy to, Naruto would have rolled his eyes. Once Ino had finished yelling about his supposed irresponsibility in handling the Kumo-nin, which took way too long in both his and Shikamaru's opinions, she had asked him about his new clothes.

Apparently Ino immediately supported Tsunade's choice to go with neutral colors like black and grey, and yes, the red jacket was great with his eyes.

Naruto idly wondered how much he could make her say or do using the admiration the blond had for his mother, but squashed that thought immediately after. His Kaa-san had told him to 'try to restrict himself to manipulating only enemies, and please, please not play mental games with the Uchiha'; since his mind was already traumatized enough as it was.

A pity, he really liked messing with others' heads. It was fun.

Finally Ino's ramblings came to a stop, and looking in front of them the red-eyed boy realized the reason was that they reached the academy which was where they'd been told to go for the chuunin exams.

Shikamaru yawned, and Naruto couldn't help doing the same. It was infectious. Ino often complained she'd probably catch their laziness disease, but so far they'd been unlucky and she'd remained the troublesome girl she's always been.

Thankfully right now she was too worried about the exam to hit them, and just grabbed their arms to drag them into the building. But while Shikamaru decided to start walking on his own, even if he was dragging his feet, Naruto was feeling really sleepy.

Thus some of the passing chuunin were greeted by the sight of one Yamanaka Ino forcefully dragging a Senju Naruto down the corridor and up the stairs by a leg. A loud 'bonk' marked every step they went up, that being Naruto's head hitting said step.

The whole affair had the side effect of Ino being so focused on her task that she flat out missed the trap set up on the second floor. She was too busy counting the steps, swearing at him for behaving like a three-years old, and generally whining at the physical exertion.

Shikamaru arrived at the third floor soon after them just happy that Ino had forgot what his family did and how it could have saved her the trouble of manually dragging their teammate.

The orange haired boy looked at him then at Ino.

"Who is that guy? And who are you, blondie? What's this place? Why are we here? Is there a party? Can I have a strawberry ice-cream with chocolate chips and whipped cream on top?"

The girl turned towards her other teammate with an eyebrow twitching. She really hated being on her team sometimes.

"Three floors, Ino." Shikamaru answered her silent question, "uneven number of hits on his head."

Well, some other times being on her team wasn't so bad. Smiling sweetly, Ino helped Naruto stand up, only to then use his head to open the door of classroom 301, nearly breaking it. The door, not the head.

"Aww… That hurt…"

"Shut up." The bossy mind walker ignored his complains and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, forcing him to walk to a corner of the room where they sat down, with Shikamaru following while silently and discretely analyzing the competition.

Really, they couldn't have done it better if they'd planned it. Ino and Naruto were acting like a decoy, attracting attention to themselves without really putting up that big of a scene as to make the other teams antagonize them, and no one even glanced at the lazy boy who could then observe everyone calmly and rationally.

There was the fact that they were giving the image of being a weak and inexperienced team, which was dangerous as well as partially true, but being underestimated could turn out to be a good thing for them.

Trying to think about what would be asked of them for the exam and how to overcome it, Shikamaru sat with his teammates and waited.

* * *

**AN**: Yes, it took me really long, no I don't have a good reason, yes I'll try to update faster, no I can't guarantee it.

To make up for taking so long, though, I'll soon release the prologue to a new story. Be warned it'll be totally different, hopefully better than this, both as originality and writing style. If you've read my one-shot you know that when I say different I mean Different. And no, I don't mean sad.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Now an Omake by **Knyght**:

"Haku…" said Zabuza "I am afraid that due to the incident with Gato we are short of funds, and the comments of that blond gaki made me think… we could use your… ahem… talents."

When Haku heard that his face changed from normal to white to blue and finally to green as realization hit him, then he covered himself with his hands in a protective way and asked with a cracked voice:

"Are you saying I should… change and… sell… my self… my abilities?"

Zabuza responded with a sadistic smile and said "Exactly."

Several months later, Haku found himself in a miniskirt acting as waitress and serving icicles and ice-cream in the new "Seven Icicles Of The Mist" stand repeating as a mantra "It could have been worse." again and again and again, and he then thought about Naruto's suggestion and said "Indeed."


	17. Exam starts

I'm not particulary happy with this chapter, but at least it's done. ^^

* * *

**CHAPTER 17 – EXAM STARTS!**

"Troublesome."

Shikamaru had been relatively happy with how they had managed to blend into the background once Ino had stopped her bossy antics and let Naruto be. This whole exam business was just a worrisome affair, and he firmly believed that their team should avoid attracting unnecessary and unwanted attention.

Sure, their entrance had gone a bit against that, but the pros outweighed the cons then. Now however…

"Get away from Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!!"

"If it isn't Sakura… Same ugly forehead as ever…"

Just troublesome.

"What did you say?"

Should he interrupt them and explain why what they were doing was so stupid? On the one hand, it would be bothersome and he'd only get yelled at for simply stating the truth, but on the other hand, Ino was his teammate, so if she painted herself as a target the whole team would end up attacked.

While he was confident in his abilities and those of Naruto and Ino, he was smart enough to know that there were good chances that many of the older teams could wipe the floor with them. That is if his goggle-wearing teammate didn't pull other awesome skills out of his ass like in Wave.

Still why go looking for a fight when they could sneak by in the shadows, hiding from everyone else, like ninja were supposed to? Why did he become a ninja again? Oh, right; his mother and his father. Troublesome parents, they'd have had heart attacks if he came out saying, "I want to be a civilian".

Not that he really wanted to, because as annoying as it was, being a ninja also gave him the opportunity to protect his village and his friends. Losing them while he could prevent it would be… irritating. It would really piss him off, even more than sunny days without clouds.

He was distracted by a dog barking. Akamaru and Kiba were joining the already loud group. At least if he was here it meant Chouji couldn't be too far.

"Hey Shikamaru! Naruto! It's good to see you."

The young Nara smiled at his friend, as happy to see him as he was with the subdued tone he used. It gave him a proud feeling knowing that his friend had enough common sense not to shout like the Inuzuka.

"Liquorice?" Naruto offered.

"No thanks, I have my chips."

Naruto shrugged and continued to suck his licorice root, which Shikamaru idly wondered when he took out and from where.

Really, he knew that his friend had lots of sealing scroll on him all the time, but it never ceased to surprise him how many things he carried all the time, some of which were so random as to make him question the boy's sanity. Then he remembered that the very same boy wanted to buy a house made entirely of sponge…

"You guys should be more quiet." A tall teen wearing glasses and looking some years older than their group interrupted, halting the… shouting match between Ino and Sakura, as well as Kiba's one-sided one with Sasuke.

"So sorry chief librarian…" Naruto muttered around his licorice root, making Shikamaru smirk.

"You are rookies just out of the academy, right?"

"No we're just in, isn't this a classroom?" Naruto murmured, and this time his lazy teammate chuckled lightly.

Unaware of the orange-haired boy comments, the older teen went on, "This isn't a picnic."

"And that explains why me and Chouji are the only ones with food." Shikamaru coughed quietly to cover his snickers. The older boy after all was just stating the truth, sparing the young Nara the hassle of telling his troublesome peers himself.

Well, at least until he mentioned having done the exam seven times without passing ("Do they give you a prize if you reach ten? Like a cardboard headband?") and then he showed them a deck of cards which he had used to record info on every participant.

Predictably it was Sasuke the one who asked , or rather demanded from his tone, to see the cards of two other contestant, namely Gaara of Suna and Rock Lee of Konoha.

Shikamaru remembered that Ino had mentioned something about Sakura's team running into a team from the Sand village, which explained the first name, but he felt a bit of worry about team 7 knowing an older genin… Did Kakashi-sensei have them train with a more experienced squad after their mission in Wave? He surely seemed the kind of teacher who tried to instill big lessons of teamwork in his students, and jointly working with another team would be within his character…

"Shika, you're thinking too loud."

Trust Naruto to shake him from his anxious thoughts. The lazy black haired boy didn't have time to get back to his analysis either as the examiners made their theatrical entrance just then and there.

As they all sat down where they were told to, Shikamaru couldn't help but release a sigh of relief at the prospect of the first part of the exam being a written test.

Meanwhile, Naruto looked at the sheet before him reading the ten… well, nine questions on it, since in place of the tenth there was a note saying they'll be asked that when there was only 15 minutes left.

'Weird.' The orange haired boy thought, 'The point system makes it obvious they want us to cheat, as long as we do it properly, but what's up with this last one?

A test to see if we can do it fast enough? Na, fifteen minutes is a long time… Maybe a question we'll have to actually answer ourselves? Or one we have to _find_? No, it's not hidden under an illusion… A do or die situation? An auto-fail to lower the chances of people getting enough points? Mh…'

Naruto stared at his paper for another minute pondering about what the tenth question could be about, completely disregarding the other ones and what was happening in the room. Something one of the proctors noticed.

"Hey brat, if you don't know how to answer you should consider just leaving now and come back next year."

The whiskered boy raised his eyes to meet the speaker's ones, and after a second grinned toothily at him.

"I'm sorry proctor-san, it's just that my pen's too heavy."

A couple of seats behind him Shikamaru rolled his eyes, while Ino, who was on the other end of the class, gritted her teeth, restraining herself from throwing her own pen and stabbing her idiotic teammate in the head. Mainly because it'd get her disqualified.

Luckily the chuunin decided to drop the matter once Naruto turned back to his sheet and finally took his pen to write some answers, namely the six answers that required a bit of medic knowledge, like the third one asking the places a senbon should hit to cause instant death, paralysis, and apparent death.

It wouldn't do for Tsunade's son to leave such a question unanswered after all.

X X

In another room, in a different part of the village, three jounin sensei where relaxing together speculating about how their genin were faring in the test.

"It sure is boring without my team." Kakashi unexpectedly commented, making Asuma chuckle.

"Weren't you the one who was against getting his team of snot-nosed brats? I'd have never thought to hear you complain about some free time." He paused to take a drag of his cigarette, enjoying it like he hadn't been able to since he was saddled with the psycho kleptomaniac of a student that was Naruto. "Beside you may see them soon, with Ibiki running the first test…"

"Ibiki? Morino Ibiki?" the copycat raised his only visible eyebrow, "Well, that was unexpected… I'd have never thought sensei would make him proctor the exam."

"Why not? Who exactly is this Morino Ibiki?" Kurenai asked looking at her two colleagues curiously, mildly glaring at Asuma's cigarette. She had really hoped he'd have quit by now.

The third Hokage's son shamefully ignored her glare while answering, "He is a special jounin, and the captain of Konoha's torture and interrogation department."

"Indeed," Kakashi peeped in "and I find it strange that sensei allowed him to proctor the exam since the last time I checked he was against child abuse."

"…"

Asuma and Kakashi burst out laughing at Kurenai's expression, while she half heartedly glared at them for playing her.

"Sorry Kurenai, but you should have seen your face just now." Asuma said chuckling lightly.

"Your students are a surprisingly bad influenced on you. You not only have become lazier than ever, now you play pranks whenever you get the chance." The female jounin commented feigning exasperation.

"Anyway, since you're so informed, do you know who's proctoring the second portion of the exam too?"

The red-eyed woman didn't need to be a ninja to see how her companions shifted uncomfortably at her question. However, before she could press on, Gai burst in with his usual _youthful exuberance_. The fact that Kakashi seemed relieved of all things by his proclaimed eternal rival appearance just sealed it.

Turning towards Asuma she just stared at him waiting for an answer.

X X

As it turned out the last question was of the do-or-leave kind, with a bit of intimidation tactics courtesy of baldy. The apex of said tactics was when he smashed Naruto's desk with one hand, reminding the boy a bit of his mother.

Apparently Ibiki didn't like the nickname "baldy".

He still glared a bit at Naruto even as he was congratulating all the people left for passing his portion of the exam.

And then the window shattered.

A banner appeared.

And before it stood a woman with a mini-skirt, which was really mini, fishnet, which didn't seem to hide much, a cloak, which did, and a cocksure smirk with mirth in her eyes.

Naruto mentally gave her three points for her attire, four for her mischievous expression, and one for her entrance. Her timing was off after all, as Ibiki pointed out, so he couldn't give her more. Still she looked good, like Kurenai but less cold, and wild like Hana but with more curves.

He idly made a mental note to make a couple of jokes about Hana the next time Kiba tried to gloat about something, and maybe pass by to visit her at her clinic. But that was for later, right now there was another interesting woman who had just screamed to follow her.

"I'd follow you to hell, Mitarashi-san!"

His comment made her raise an eyebrow, and then smirk. "What a coincidence, that's exactly where we're going little genin."

Naruto just smiled wider and rejoined his other two teammates. Ino slapped him upside the head for behaving like a total idiot before the three of them went out of the class following the second proctor, whose clothes Ino couldn't help but mutter angrily about.

Her orange haired teammate looked at Shikamaru and decided that teasing the blonde about her not being able to wear the same attire, or joke about her _obvious_ jealousy of the woman's body, wasn't worth it.

It didn't take long for them to reach what appeared to be the edge of a forest encircled by a fence; training ground 44, if the sign on said fence told the truth. It was the place they'd be in for the next five days, according to Anko's words.

Shikamaru was listening carefully to the instructions, while Naruto examined the competition. Ino was listening too, while giving the occasional glance at the other teams. She knew her teammates were the ones who'll come up with a strategy, but she wasn't stupid. She just had two freaking geniuses on her team, even if one was so lazy it was a miracle he breathed on his own and the other was a nutcase.

A nutcase whose eyes shined with unrestrained _joy_ at the gigantic trees in front of them. Damn him.

And she just wore a brand new purple dress too!

While the teenage drama went on in Ino's mind, Anko finished her explanations about the second test objectives and passed around some sheets that were basically discharging her from any responsibilities in case of the examinees' death.

"Now, before I have to say goodbye and send you all to an early death, any questions?"

Naruto's hand shoot up, reminding all of the Konoha rookies of how a pink haired girl in their group behaved in the last years in the academy. The special jonin just snorted at his antics.

"Just ask little moron. On a second thought, sign your discharging paper first, you never know..."

While some genins took a step back, Naruto himself just smiled wider.

"I was wondering if you're single. Oh, and if would have dinner with me?"

Anko's brain drew a blank. This little idiot, smiling cheerfully, with his short spiky hair and hideous goggles and being a total moron … For a second she saw another boy in front of her, an happy-go-lucky dark haired boy who used to wear goggles just like that, and her heart skipped a beat.

She blinked before locking memories from a past so far away that she sometimes doubted it ever existed, and put up a brave front like always.

'_See Anko? Life's much easier when you face it with a smile.'_

Suppressing a wince, she tried her hardest to ignore the ghost haunting her memories, and finally answered the orange haired genin.

"While I must congratulate you on having great taste, you should recognize when something's out of your reach brat. Now that the stupid questions are over, I suggest you get your scroll and to your assigned gate before I start killing you off out of boredom."

Naruto was one of the few who found her joke fun (**if** it was a joke), while the majority of the assembled examinees thought she was a psycho and decided to hurry up in taking a scroll and leave.

* * *

**AN/** It's been so long and this chapter is so short... I'm disappointed in myself too. Ah well, let's console ourselves with a couple of omakes.

-------------------

Omake#1 by Knyght

It was a nice afternoon, the weather was nice if slightly chilly signifying the approaching of winter, and so Naruto went forth in the search of a comfortable cloud gazing spot. Finally finding the perfect clearing he stumbled upon... an Uchiha.

Yes there it was Sasuke Uchiha in all his glory, laying on his back with his eyes opened and vacant with a string of drool coming from his mouth. 'I knew he was spying when Kurenai sensei taught us those genjutsu in Wave'

He knelt next to him and checked his life signs 'hmmm... his mind is completely  
shattered, if the idiot weren't so impatient and had waited to learn them properly or at least freaking copying them with his sharingan he would have been fine... Oh well'

"Might as well do it..." Naruto muttered. Several hours later, Naruto finished rebuilding his mind and made himself scarce.

The next morning Sasuke went as usual to team 7 meeting place while holding protectively some object in his pocket. This behaviour startled Kakashi whom at the end of the day asked him "Sasuke are you carrying something in you pocket?" Sasuke began to panic and said "Yesss the preeecioouss, the preeecioouss" He said pulling out a pet-rock whose eyes were made of red marbles with three tomoes each and which fairly resembled a pair of sharingan eyes. "Thisss Rocky Uchihaaa my mentorrrr he will defeat Itachi once and for all!". Kakashi blinked 'okay... carry on' he though. It wasn't the most bizarre quirk he had ever seen, at least he didn't wear green spandex.

~3 years later~  
It was time for the final confrontation Itachi used tsukiyomi on Sasuke... and nothing happened. "Fool! The precciouuusss! Master Rocky protects my mind!". Itachi didn't know who this 'Rocky' was but he must have been pretty powerful to shield Sasuke's mind from afar(Tsukiyomi didn't work because Sasuke was simply insane). Itachi was distracted by this thoughts when he heard "Now the time is ripe! Destroy himm massterr Roockyy!" Sasuke proceeded to throw his pet rock to Itachi hitting him in the head causing him a concussion and internal bleeding. That day Master Rocky defeated the S-Rank criminal Uchiha Itachi.

~6 months later~  
Sasuke declared Rocky Uchiha as the new head of the Uchiha clan, and gave him his seat in the council. The people of Konoha learnt to respect this shady character who no one has ever seen and took his absence in the council(though Sasuke always deposited him in his council seat) as disapproval to egoistic measures and laws passed in the council(all of them).

~3 centuries later~

These days the name Rocky Uchiha was known trough the elemental nations, he was considered the sanest, wisest and most benevolent of the Uchiha patriarchs of all times, casting long shadows upon both his predecessors and successors alike. He was also known as the Uchiha savior because he and one boy saved the clan in its darkest times when just the two of them remained, also this period is called "the Volcano time" since the Uchiha clan developed the ability to use the lava element, the Uchiha clan had always possessed the fire element, how they gained the earth element and learnt to combine it with fire is still a mystery to this day.

-------------------

Omake#2 by Knyght

Minato was wary of a possible attack during the chunin exam, so just before it started he decided to inspect the stands surrounding the stadium.

He paced around lazily "Hmm... the Ichiraku ramen stand" said Minato waving at Teuchi and his daughter Ayame. He kept walking until he stumbled with the seven icicles of the mist and its "cute waitress" who, under the watchful sight of the young kage, simply said "I'm a boy" slightly weirding out Minato.

The blond pressed on to the next stand... and saw in bright letters "The cult of the sponge. Now recruiting!!" He was promptly given an information pamphlet and trial sponge.

He simply kept walking thinking to himself 'This is the last time I stamp permits while drunk.' then he stopped to a standstill when he saw the last stand he needed to check: "Anti pants thieving devices".

Minato sighed, looked left and right to check that no one was watching and said "one pair couldn't hurt".


	18. In the forest

Been a while... Thanks to HaremLover for beta-reading.

**CHAPTER 18 – IN THE FOREST**

Ino considered herself a sensible and understanding person. Sure, she may have a fiery temper, and it may occasionally happen that she went ballistic if someone pulled her leg, but she prided herself on being a tolerant girl.

Her teammates, however, seemed to exist for the sole purpose of annoying her. One was a lazy good-for-nothing misogynist who had repeated the word 'troublesome' at least seventeen times in the last ten minutes, while the other alternated between being even lazier than the first or a hyperactive goofball. He also must have some serious mental problem that she would have been interested in studying if she hadn't had to spend every day with him.

The goggle-wearing idiot's last quirk, however, aside from raising her suspicions about his having some physical problems, was slowing them down considerably.

"I gotta pee."

The blond Yamanaka turned to her teammate and glared at him.

"Naruto, that's the thirty-second time since we entered this damn forest; what the fuck are you doing, marking your territory? I thought I dodged that ball when Kiba was assigned to a different team!"

Naruto tilted his head, and Ino could tell he was eying her curiously even if his dark goggles covered his slitted red eyes, which were seriously freaky in her opinion, although less than what other ninja had. Like Shino and his insects… Ino shuddered at the mere thought. Curse her decision to research the most famous bloodlines known to Konoha before the exam.

"Why are you so cranky? It's not like we don't have time, and this place isn't too bad, on the contrary it's quite nice…"

The young kunoichi took a deep breath, repeating to herself that she needed her mentally challenged teammate in good health in order to pass this exam.

"… smells soooo good, and they have this calming and relaxing effects almost like, I dunno, a lullaby."

Ino turned towards her annoying but sane teammate.

"What smells like a lullaby?" the blond asked, feeling stupid just by repeating that.

"The trees, apparently." Shikamaru answered eying his surroundings, "And it isn't a genjutsu either, I checked. It's just another of Naruto's quirks."

They just looked on as the adopted Senju hugged and nuzzled a tree.

"I can't believe it, if a foreign team were to see this then they'd have all the reason in the world to call us all tree-huggers."

The blond kunoichi was getting depressed; her team was struck in the damn forest for the next five days, and she doubted there were any other teams weaker than them.

_'Just look at our supposed best fighter, feeling up a tree! We're doomed, as soon as someone finds us...Wait, someone's coming!'_

Ino exchanged a quick look with Shikamaru, then dove behind a nearby bush. The dark haired Nara swiftly grabbed their final teammate by his jacket and dragged him there too.

Not even three seconds later, a lone genin landed in the clearing. He had long dark hair, creepy white eyes, a white jacket, a pair of dark shorts and a Konoha headband. Despite being alone, he was pretty intimidating, especially when Ino realized she knew who he was. Neji Hyuga, the one she had heard was labelled as the stronger genin in the village.

"You can come out, I know you're here."

His words made her panic. Ino turned to Shikamaru and whispered to him, "Plan number one: hide and avoid trouble, failed. It's time to pass to plan number two."

"We have a plan number two?" Naruto's own question went ignored as Shikamaru's comment, "Troublesome." didn't count as an answer.

Team Eight jumped out of their hiding spot and proceeded to utterly humiliate themselves. Well, Ino did, as her attempt to work her charms on the young Hyuga prodigy had the same success as Jiraiya's with Tsunade. At least Neji didn't have the legendary kunoichi's temper, or her propensity to violence. He did have, however, a gift with words.

"What a disgrace, academy standards must have really dropped in the last year."

He looked at all of them with what would have been contempt if he had summed up the energy to actually mold his face into such a fierce expression. As it was, his face was blank until he turned away and started to walk away.

"Such weaklings, if I were to take your scroll I'd be the laughing stock of the village. Just be grateful and run away."

…

…

"Not. A. Word. I'm serious, don't you two dare to say anything."

Shikamaru and Naruto complied with her request and kept their mouths shut.

XxxxxxxxxxX

Another Naruto was walking in the forest. Knowing Shadow Clones was great for multitasking, and being able to actually improve the jutsu a bit thanks to his own differences, just added to it. This left him free to explore the Forest of Death.

He rubbed a tree with his hand and smiled. He could feel it, it was feeble but it was there. Residual chakra flowed under the bark of every plant, the reason they grew so unnaturally big. He could feel that these woods had been created and raised by the first Hokage.

Naruto leaned against the tree with a sigh. He missed Hashish-kun, the feeling of his chakra had been like a drug -hence the nickname- and Tsunade's, while similar, wasn't as potent. Normal humans had such short life spans, and they died so easily. Such fragile creatures.

It was sort of ironic that, as he thought this, the man who more than any other chased after immortality landed on a branch of the very same tree he was leaning against, followed shortly by Mitarashi Anko.

If he noticed the genin looking up at them, Orochimaru didn't give a rat's ass about him. For the moment he was busy toying around with his one-time apprentice, who incidentally was giving quite the show to Naruto who had free reign to look up her skirt from where he was.

The goggle-wearing boy didn't move from his spot until it became clear that the pale sannin was hurting and humiliating Anko, who was grasping her neck as if it hurt a lot. It was strange because Naruto was sure she hadn't been injured there.

In any case, he saw the perfect opportunity to save her like the knight in shining armor and took it. He jumped on the branch landing between the two. Orochimaru's lack of reaction, besides being amused, showed him he was right in assuming the sannin had noticed him earlier and simply decided to ignore him. Not like a little genin could do anything when facing him after all, right?

Anko, on the other hand, was gob-smacked.

_'What. The. Fuck?'_

One second she was going to get screwed over by her traitorous ex-sensei, then the next a fucking genin decided to jump out of nowhere right in between them. A Leaf genin at that. She had to stop him before he did something stupid like attacking Orochimaru and got himself killed. Fighting against that pain her curse seal was causing her, she shouted at him.

"Wh-what the hell are you doing here? Forget it, this isn't part of the exam! You're no match for him, you must get out of here! Are you listening? You have to run!"

"Aww…" Naruto's head fell down as he heard that. "You don't have to say it like that! You make me sound like I'm a weak loser who can't do anything."

"Yes Anko-chan, that was rude." Orochimaru seemed more amused than anything. "Just because I have the hobby of brutally abusing and maiming young children you go and tell him to flee like that."

Naruto looked the freak up and down, then turned back to the exam proctor "If I beat him up and defend your honor will you give me a wild night of unrestrained passion?"

Anko gritted her teeth.

"This is serious, you idiot! He's Orochimaru of the sannin!" She shouted trying to stand up.

"I guess that's a no. Oh well, couldn't blame me for trying." The genin looked back at the sannin who was studying him with interest.

"You're awfully calm child."

"My mom told me that as long as I kept my pants on I should be safe around you."

Orochimaru made a disgusted face at the comment. Contrarily to what some of his quirks may have pointed to, he wasn't a pedophile. He admired young and strong bodies, yes, but he had no desire to have sex with them; he just wanted to be like that. To feel youthful.

Somewhere Gai felt the need to stab himself repeatedly with a blunt kunai.

"Your mother?" The pale faced man inquired. The boy had just alluded to her specifically referring to himself after all.

"Yeah. Blond, short-tempered, biggest rack on this side of the world, best medic too, could punch a boss summon from here to Kumo and lose money like… mh… I don't think there's a good comparison to explain just how much she sucks at gambling."

Orochimaru's interest just doubled. So this was the stray Tsunade had taken in. Maybe if he took him out she'd leave the village again in grief?

He paused his musing for a second to redo the one-handed seal that activated Anko's curse seal sending her back on her knees.

"Come on man, quit it, that was just mean."

There was something unsettling about this child, though. Tsunade couldn't have forgotten to tell her precious son just what kind of fights he should avoid, he remembered her always arguing with Nawaki about that. So why was this brat so relaxed and careless when facing him?

"Oh well, it was great meeting you and all, but I'll go now. I'll tell mom you passed to say hi."

The Konoha missing-nin raised an eyebrow. "And just what makes you think I'll let you go?"

The boy grinned widely, his dark goggles reflecting the feeble moonlight. "Well, since you've been trapped in my illusion talking with yourself for some minutes now, it's kind of late for that."

Orochimaru startled at that. Him trapped in genjutsu by a little genin without being the wiser. Who was this, the second coming of Uchiha Itachi?

"Oh, one thing snakey." The self-proclaimed illusionary boy said. "I'm not really sure what you're doing here, and frankly I don't care."

That didn't sound very patriotic considering he was talking with a traitor who infiltrated his village.

"But I'll tell you this. I want to keep Tsunade happy, and if she asks me to chop you into pieces, I'll do so. If you try to hurt her, you'll regret it. And finally, this forest and the one east of the village are mine. Your overgrown snake-snack already destroyed two trees earlier. I won't tolerate more."

Towards the end, the orange haired genin's voice had become a menacing growl that made Orochimaru's skin crawl. He could swear the temperature had risen and he thought he had seen a red flash coming from behind his goggles just before he disappeared like smoke in a windy day.

Wait, a red flash from his eyes? And he had trapped him in an illusion so easily… Could it be… Could Tsunade have found an Uchiha survivor? But it didn't make sense, why hide it? And what did he mean saying these forests were his?

This child was weird; a mystery. He'd have to keep an eye on him, just to be safe.

XxxxxxxxxxX

It had taken some time, but after she was done sulking at how she had been dismissed, Ino had started to share her worries with her teammates.

"Let's face it, all the teams from our village are stronger than us, and the ones from other villages we know nothing about but are more likely than not still stronger. The only team we could have a chance against is Kiba's since he's paired with fatty and Hinata."

"You should know better than that Ino, our parents were teamed with Chouji's and his family's jutsu are nothing to laugh at."

Shikamaru was trying to reason with her, an exercise in futility he'd admit, but there wasn't much else he could do unless she calmed down.

Naruto, for his part, had climbed a tree and was looking at their surroundings, when he spotted something and decided to join the conversation.

"What about our other classmates?"

"Don't be stupid." Ino hissed, "I give you that Sakura's weak, but Shino is a good ninja and Sasuke-kun is simply undefeatable."

The orange haired genin turned towards her and smiled cheekily, "So, if I told you I've just spotted that Sasuke and Shino are passed out and Sakura's the only one awake you'd be alright with attacking them?"

"WHAT?"

Both the Yamanaka and Nara heirs jumped into the tree on either side of their teammate to see for themselves the scene he described.

"So," Naruto begun in a cheerful tone, "are we going?"

It didn't take them long, however, when they arrived in the clearing, someone was already beating the living daylights out of Ino's one-time best friend. There was also a green weirdo passed out who bore a Konoha hitai-ate.

The Sound genin were utterly owning the Leaf genin, and Ino was actually shivering from fear. The blond wanted to help Sakura, they had been best friends and she didn't want to see the other girl dying, but…

She watched as the pink haired girl bit on an Oto-genin's arm and he started punching her furiously.

"Ino?" Shikamaru shook her, he knew that if they wanted to do anything they'd have to do it NOW.

"I know. I know." She seemed to have made up her mind. "Let's go."

Naruto could fight, he knew how to. Ninjutsu wasn't that hard to grasp, and taijutsu while harder was still easy enough, if nothing else just because he could take a lot more punishment and hit harder that one thought possible.

However, Naruto was also lazy by nature, so his preferred tactic was genjutsu. Illusions could do pretty much anything, and required much less work than nin or taijutsu as well as being more fun. As a consequence, unless he got in the mood, illusions were the only thing he ever used.

The human mind had so much in it: dreams, fears, regrets, desires, sadness, hopes, all of those contrasting feelings that could be manipulated to make a human into an empty shell, trapped in a faux world.

Which explained why the spiky haired sound genin, Zaku, was dry humping a tree. Yeah, illusions were fun.

"This is it! If you don't want the girl to die, leave your scroll and get out of here!" the sound kunoichi yelled while holding a kunai to her own throat. Ino's jutsu was a success apparently.

That was when the last member of that team, a guy with his head covered in bandages and a weird looking device on his arm, used his own jutsu. On his possessed comrade.

The dark haired girl slammed against the boy Naruto had trapped with a genjutsu, who got freed from it when his face impacted with the tree he'd been having his way with.

Ino, much like the body she was controlling, coughed up some blood.

"You should have stayed out of this," The bandaged genin said. "you'd have lived longer. We're not interested in completing this stupid exam, and any sacrifice is tolerable for us as long as we complete our mission."

"Your mission?" Shikamaru asked. He was getting a bad feel from this.

"Yeah." Zaku, who was now aware of what was going on and where he was, spoke up spitting out some blood from a split lip. "We're here for Uchiha Sasuke."

"And now that your pathetic attempt to stop us is over, you'll die too." Dosu finished.

Their attempt at intimidation wasn't so bad and Naruto wondered how much they had practiced that speech. It would have worked better if a new arrival hadn't interrupted them. Literally looking down at everyone in the clearing, Hyuga Neji made his presence known. The green passed out weirdo was one of the members of his team and Neji didn't look happy about seeing him down.

Naruto sneaked a glance at his female teammate, who despite being hurt still twitched when she recognized, to quote her words, "the asshole who dared to snob my beauty".

The adopted Senju blatantly ignored the new arrival exchanging taunts with the genin from Sound, and decided to sit down and watch. It had been a while now since he first felt something weird with the young Uchiha's chakra, and whatever it was seemed to have finally stabilized enough as Sasuke rose to his feet.

The others in the clearing noticed him too… once Neji pointed out to them he wouldn't need to fight. And he was right, as Sasuke thrashed the ones that were supposed to kill him with surprising easy.

'Now, this is just unfair. He gets those nice glowing tattoos and a power boost for free, while all the others were smacked around.'

A scream almost ruptured his eardrums as Zaku's arms snapped.

"Sasuke-kun, please stop!" Sakura cried as she hugged the newly awakened nin from behind.

Naruto blinked. He turned towards Ino.

"Why did she do that?"

He got a weird look from both his teammates, although Ino's resembled a horrified or disbelieving expression where as Shikamaru's seemed calculative.

In any case, the dark haired Uchiha's display scared the sound genin too, who decided to leave their scroll and make a run for it. Naruto thought they were idiots since Sasuke looked rather out of it after his pink-haired teammate stopped him, what with him staring at his shaking hands and all.

The goggle wearing boy decided to approach Shino, who was still unconscious and check up on him.

"Couple of cracked ribs, sprained ankle, right arm covered in burns from an acidic substance, and lots of insects crawling under the skin. You could be worse."

Shino, being unconscious, didn't answer. Sakura, who had noticed him examining the teammate she wasn't still hugging -something he was sure Ino would rant about for a while in the coming days- walked towards him with Sasuke, who looked to be lost in his own thoughts.

"Ah, Naruto… c-can you heal him?"

"Nope, no can do."

For a second no one said anything as they looked at him, and then Haruno's short temper showed itself.

"Why the hell not? You're a medic aren't you?"

Naruto turned to face her.

"I'm studying medicine, there's a difference. I can make a diagnosis, prepare antidotes for most poisons and give decent first aid, but I cannot treat wounds like a real medic-nin would." He explained."Did you really think I was that proficient in medical jutsu when I'm just a little genin who's studying other things as well? I mean, sealing theory is much more fascinating. Besides…" They couldn't see his eyes behind his dark goggles, but it was easy to imagine his condescending expression. "...we're in the middle of a test and our teams are enemies."

For a moment the genin in the clearing all tensed up. Well, Neji actually sent what was probably an approving glance at him for pointing out such an obvious thing, but the others looked worried at the prospective of starting another fight so soon.

Thankfully for everyone Ino decided to stop anything before it started. She slapped Naruto upside the head.

"Don't be an idiot, we've just got out of a fight and they're our classmates."

"Troublesome. They have the same scroll as us anyway." Shikamaru said with a shrug. He'd done way more than he wanted to for the day and wasn't eager to jump into a useless fight anytime soon.

"Oh. True." Naruto scratched his head as he noticed the Nara was right. "I wasn't serious anyway, if there's anyone I'd heal, being able to, it'd be Shino."

Sakura eyed him curiously at that declaration. "Why?"

He shrugged.

"I like him, we have similar interests." Seeing that she didn't understand what he meant, Naruto elaborated. "We both study society, behavior patterns and interactions of lower life forms."

The pink haired girl made a face thinking about all those insects. She liked Shino as a teammate, he was smart, quiet, and didn't get between herself and Sasuke-kun, but the thought of all those tiny multi-legged disgusting bugs… eww.

She didn't notice Naruto smiling at his inside joke.

XxxxxxxxxxxX

Anko groggily opened her eyes and sat up.

"Where…?"

She looked around and it took her a moment to recognize the place. She was on the roof of the tower in the center of the Forest of Death.

"Hello proctor, slept well? By the way, do you mind if I call you Anko-chan?"

The special jonin twirled around assuming a defensive stance. What, or rather, who was standing there wasn't the person she expected, just a short genin with gray pants, black t-shirt and red jacket. His eyes were hidden by dark goggles and his hair was spiky and bright dark orange. Weirdly enough her first thought was 'there's no way that is natural'.

The second thought was that she knew the little shit, Senju Naruto, a known troublemaker and heir, even if only on paper and not by blood, to one of the most important clans of the village.

"Where is he?" Anko asked.

She knew her former sensei wouldn't have let them go as if nothing happened .

"Not here. He said he had other, more important things to do and went on his merry way." The boy answered making Anko sweat-drop. She sometimes forgot how vain that man was."I thought to bring you here since it's probably where you were going to go anyway. And there are some nice rooms in case you changed your mind about having hot steamy sex with me."

Anko sighed.

"Quit it, moron, you're way out of your league. And this isn't the time for joking."

"But it's fun." Naruto pouted. "And you're the first one who's responding in kind and not gone screaming pervert as soon as I make a dirty joke or an indecent offer."

Anko walked toward the door to get inside the tower before she turned to smirk at him.

"Well, I'm special like that. Just get back to your test now, the big guns will take care of that traitor." With that said, she went inside, leaving him alone on the rooftop.

"I wonder what she'd do if I turned serious about that." Naruto murmured with a mischievous grin.

His expression faltered as he saw a Kumo team with a blond girl enter the tower.

"And there went kitty. I lost my chance to get her it seems. Oh well, there's always a next time."

A puff of smoke later and he disappeared.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

After separating from Team Seven, things got boring for Asuma's students. It was the third day of the test and they hadn't run into anyone else. Something positive that came from that confrontation was that now that she had thrown herself (and her teammates) into a battle, Ino seemed more confident in their chances for passing the test.

"Fine, our best chance to find another team would be to head for the tower straight away and wait there. Of course, the probability of being ambushed will increase exponentially too." Shikamaru exposed his opinion.

Ino, for all her bossing attitude, knew that she wasn't the best at coming up with a plan and simply nodded her assent, while Naruto was basically following whatever his two teammates wanted to do without complain. It was as if he didn't really give a damn, and he probably didn't.

He stifled a yawn and lifted his goggles to rub his eyes, then positioned them back on and stretched. He really loved being in this particular forest, but it seemed their time here was coming to its end. He consoled himself with the thought of looking for Mitarashi in the tower, and maybe kitty and sandy too; although the latter was bat-shit crazy, but that was the fun part.

First thing, though, getting the scroll they needed.

Team Ten followed their unofficial leader, Shikamaru, as they sprinted in the direction of the tower. They weren't far from it and could probably reach it within an hour if they run all the way and weren't stopped. But they counted on being stopped, preferably by a team who possessed the scroll they needed. And stopped they were.

Naruto, who Shikamaru had in the front position, deliberately tripped on the ninja-wire in his path, causing the exploding tags it was linked to, to detonate. It was one of the most simple and effective traps taught to every genin in every village.

Before either Ino or Shikamaru could do anything to help their teammate, three genin with Waterfall headbands descended on them. Ino desperately blocked her assailant's kunai with her own while Shikamaru opted to jump out of the way of the two who were attacking him, trying to move closer to the surrounding trees for cover.

"Trying to run away? We won't let you!" The two who were tag teaming Shikamaru went to attack him. From how they moved it seemed their specialty was taijutsu, and their teamwork was absolutely perfect. Without even looking to one another they moved in tandem, covering each other's openings and attacking their opponent relentlessly.

When Shikamaru had his back to a tree, however, the two Waterfall genin suddenly froze. Their third teammate, who was holding Ino's face pressed to the ground with a kunai at her throat looked on curiously as the taller of the two of Shikamaru's attacker looked in his pouches and took out their scroll with an odd smirk.

"Hey, what are you…?" His question died in his throat as he saw him throw the scroll to a shadow perched on the branch of a tree. Whoever it was took the scroll, turned and run away.

"The hell did you do?" This time it was asked with more anger than confusion.

As his other teammate started moving again, he too turned toward him. The taller guy, then turned and blew a kiss at him.

"You fell in our trap. Thank you for the scroll and bye-bye." That said, he crumbled to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.

Just then, the Leaf genin they had trapped with his back on a tree and the blond girl he was holding went up in a puff of smoke and disappeared.

At the same time Shikamaru, Ino and Naruto reached the tower with the required two scrolls and passed the second test.

XxxxxxxxxxX

XxxxxxxxxxX

**AN:** I know it took a long time to update, but I had to study, and then I have other stories too now.**  
**

I noticed that a lot of review still ask about Naruto's nature. I already dropped not-so-subtle hints in previous chapters and... Well, to quote one of QuillofMolliemon's stories "There's dropping a hint and then there's hitting someone over the head with one."

Also, in this chapter you should have noticed that little speech Naruto gave about his medical skills. He isn't very proficent as a medic-nin he basically has good theorical knowledge, but cannot do anythng beyond the most basic things. He cannot do medical jutsu, in short, and the things he can treat are limited.

For any questions, you know how to ask. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


End file.
